Hello,

I am loving my RX-2, it has a mmc-4 cart, but I would like to upgrade, Im thinking the smmc3 as the price is not too bad, however Im not confortable springing for the smmc-2, can anyone chime in on how the smmc4, smmc3 relate to a original mmc4, There is not too much info out there on direct compariosns, BtW the mmc4 is in great condition.

rx-2

Parasound php-100 phono

Harmon K, AvR-247

Emotva XPA-3 amp w/cardas cables.

Vandersteen 2ce

To be perfectly honest a SMMC4 is an upgrade to a B&O MMC4 in itself - this I can personally vouch for. Very good cartridge & brighter than the B&O ones. I'm sure the SMMC3 will be even better but I haven't heard one playing personally.

Chris.

Medogsfat:

To be perfectly honest a SMMC4 is an upgrade to a B&O MMC4 in itself.

Ill second that. They do sound better than the original B&O ones.

Craig

Thank you for the replies, my local dealer mentioned that B&o turntables had issues producing sounds under 50hrz, but Im dismissing this as nonsnese. I would like to see some more low end, and Im suspecting my AVR possibly not sending through the entire range, or older parasound pph-100 phone pre, but I dont want to get too crazy. I will give the soundsmith cart a shot, as I absolutely love the rx2, and would love to keep it.

Bass under 50Hz is very low end! You will feel it more than hear it. I would agree to an extent with your dealer as Beograms on the whole do sound a little bass light, probably due to the lack of decent record support. However whether this ultimate lack of bass is relevant is debatable. I doubt most speakers will reproduce that much at the lower levels and certainly the drop in frequency response will be minor for the Beogram in comparison. I would stick with the RX2 - very nice deck!

I totally understand the 50hrz and down thing, but my dealer was saying that it actually cuts off lower frequencies abruptly. I used a RtA and can see that the player is indeed pushing freqs below 60hrz. One issue I discovered is that my harmon avr-247, which Im basicly using as a pre-amp, has a setting for large speakers, the issue is that the crossover cannot be disabled and the lowest I can set it is at 40hrz, I know that it does not block at exactly 40hrz and down, but that it signifigantly cuts the freqs off or tappers them down. I should be able to totally turn off this feature, as my vandys can go down to 26hrz. the 10in woofer is designed to handle sub 40hrz and down. Harmon assumes that you are going to use a sub to handle LFE. in my case Im running 2ch stereo and dont have my sub hooked up. So I guess Ill look into a true pre setup that can also do home theater 7.1 decoding like the emotiva pre. Im not too happy but I doubt that harmon will push a firware update just for me. Im very sad.

Thanks for all the advice. I think i am going to order the soundsmith and sell my mmc4 on ebay or here as I wont be needing it. Overall I love the player, but plan on putting a new belt on in the near future as well as using some oil to service it.

You guess are great.

I see what you mean - your dealer is wrong. If you look at the signal path you can see it is unimpeded. The cartridges go from 20Hz so again no cut off.