Unhappy UK Phono Stage Owner

Thank you for your interest. I have the Transrotor/Goldring Uccello Reference (UC-R) now for a few weeks. I upgraded from a Goldring 1042. The Accession has two weeks of burning in. The combination is slightly on the bright side, I think this will settle down after further burn in. Besides that, everything sounds as it should sound, just right. Like the Solo, where I never felt the urge of having anything different.

2 what tracking force did you find worked for the 1042? I’ve been experimenting and at firs I had it around 1.85 after reading about how others set it up, but I recently noticed that if I set it around 1.5 the high frequency response is much richer. 

I did not find a real review or test, yet there are various mentions in forums. There is a discussion prefering the 1022 being more dynamic or the 1042 having more resolution and the Reference combining both virtues.

I had the Goldring 1042 for 14 years, bought a replacement stylus. Either they changed the specification or it was faulty, I was not satisfied. I contacted the dealer about it, but the answer from Goldring was that judging from my description the stylus was ok.

The old stylus hat a sound balance more like the reference, the new on had a lot missing in the lower department and something strange in the trebles, maybe a peak somewhere. And I needed a tracking force of 1.9 g instead of 1.75 g, which was best for the original and the reference stylus. Out of the three stylus, the reference had the best sound balance and lows and highs seem more extended and cleaner. Where the 1042 has an enhanced stage image which works fine with classical music or some jazz titles, it has strange effects with some 12'' records from the disco era (late 70s, early 80s). Here the Referece has a natural stage reproduction, which is compatible with all kind of styles.

We say, the brunette keeps what the blonde promises. Here the Reference does what the 1042 is supposed to do.

As I mentioned, the tracking force is 1.75 g. The sound should have just the right amount of sparkle. If it has too much at lower tracking forces, the VTA/SRA is not right and the sound gets out of phase.