What are you listening to

10CC - Sheet Music on original early pressing and CD.

Didn't have me ears in so can't tell if the drop-out was there originally and couldn't hear it on the 2007 issue CD either, so that'll be for later.

I love this album still and after 50 years, it seems fresh still.

Tell yer summat though, the CD sounds so much better I'll need to change the pickup on this bloody turntable at Least for something more 'dramatic' (currently a very low hours ADC ZLM which is more assertive than thew XLM III ever was). Can't afford a 2M Bronze and not sure if a VM95ML isn't too far the other way, so shall have to look elsewhere methinks... The AT20SLa used to sound fab in the Dual 701 so maybe a VM740 will do although the VM760 is where the 20SLa was all those decades ago

I could be talking rubbish but I have heard folk saying that the new ATs actually lose out to the older AT15 and AT20 with their better stylus choices. I’m still running an AT15 ss and haven’t had any desire to change it.

I could probably get a brand new one at trade for not much more, but many thanks Andr'e...

I have an AT120E here which is great in the frail AP76 tonearm but which sounded nowhere near as nice in the Dual arm. The main criticism of the 120E was a 'detached' bass and sparkly top, which the Garrard arm balances very well, the 'sparkle being sweet and never jarring as I found the Goldring 10** series could (just checked, the 1042 stylus has gone up fifty quid in very recent years which is madness to me ). The VM530 is same tip as the 120E but suspension tuned to a 2g tracking weight rather than 1.5g and I believe the hf peak remains - the 540 does seem tamed though, over the 440 models which preceded it.

I loved the 2M Bronze in an RB303 but feel that for the Dual arm, which is a lively thing in absolute terms, a VM740 or 760 might be better. As said before, one of the best 'sounds' I had from a 701 once, was my manager's sample with 20SLa in it and into the same slightly quirky phono stage of the IC-150 preamp.

I have a mint Koetsu Black with VERY low hours but a channel gone due to a broken coil wire. That'll cost a bomb now to repair as I doubt a repairer would simply clean and splice the coil wire back together. I have a Goldring 1042 where the cantilever fractured at the suspension end due to an accident and a similar middle aged V15VMR where the same thing happened (I loved that cartridge including its slightly smaller scale sound compared to higher end models).

10CC, Old Wild Men - and the hideous drop-out 1:48 in which isn't there on the original vinyl but which gets worse with each mastering of the song over the decades and so obvious that nobody except me can hear it I do hope there are alternative masters, maybe the master mix of this track still survives baeky played?

Oh feck, nobody gives a sh*t

I’ve never listened to 10cc. I do remember them having a big hit which I didn’t mind, but I can’t even remember what it was. I googled that song and heard a YouTube but I couldn’t really follow or understand it. It didn’t seem to have a regular tune or structure that I could pick up on. Just too subtle or sophisticated for me, I guess.

Sorry thats wrong must be 1975 its off 'SOUNDTRACK' LP