On Jan 26, 8:08*am, countdown wrote:
*Has anyone ever done a sound comparison between the 345-03d and a
Stereo (ss160 type) cartridge with mono adaptor?. They have the same
type head. Just makes me wondering if the internals are actually the
same?
*Thanks,Johnny

I can't comment on the use of adapters other than to say that I found
them to be flimsy and the specimens that I saw only connected one
channel thus allowing more distortion.

I have several V-VL's in commercial service and have used later
tonearm from SS160-up as a retrofit.

When wired mono the SS160 cart does have a slightly better upper
treble than the retro 03D.

Part of this may be due to the internal impdeance of each cart:

Original SS160 cart is approc 390 ohm/channel

The retro replacement is varies but averages 720-740 ohm which is a
single output.

The higher impedance of the retro cart is due to more coil windings to
produce higher output. This inevitably effects how the cart should
be loaded by the preamp. A lower input impedance of say the typical
47K/ohm will tend to produce a slight hump in upper midrange and may
also slightly attenuate upper treble.

Given the typical quality of jukebox speakers and records, I doubt
that anyone would notice the difference. However, if the machine's
preamp is feeding a higher quality amp and speakers you will hear a
difference that is in favor of the original cart.

Rob/NYC