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Budget? Cartridge recommendations

I have an old Sota turntable with Premier MMT tonearm that I would like to use again (after 12 years in storage) and wish to purchase a moving coil cartridge to play my also old vinyl collection. My primary source is an Ayre CD player and I will use an older Jeff Rowland Consummate Phono Stage to support the new cartridge.  I would like a cartridge that will perform well...but not trying to reach state of the art "for cost reasons".  What is a good lower budget ($1,500 or less) cartridge that will help me accomplish my goal?  One acquaintance suggested a Goldline Ethos?  
Thank you in advance for your collective responses.

thermals1

Showing 2 responses by chakster

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
If your SUMIKO tonearm is moderate mass then you can't go wrong with JVC Victor cartridges. Your suggested budget is more than enough for any of these. Two of them are direct coupled LOMC (AT ART1000 inspired by this technology, watch it), but one of them is absolutely terrific MM, talking about Victor X-1II (Beryllium cantilever, Shibata stylus tip). Even lower model X-1IIe (Titanium Pipe cantilever, Elliptical tip) is absolutely amazing for half price. 

Victor are state of the art cartridges in my opinion.  
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
The MMT has a mass of 20 grams. Make sure the cartridge you use is a lower compliance type. You can calculate the arm and cartridge compatibility using this chart!
http://www.mh-audio.nl/Calculators/RF.html

Lighter headshell and lighter cartridge will change an effective mass. 
Before any calculation you need to know a cartridge compliance at 10Hz, but most japanese cartridges does not provide a compliance at 10Hz, instead they do 100Hz. 

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