Cartridge recommendations


Need a need a new Cartridge for my Marantz Tt150. Want a good cartridge without breaking the bank. 300-500 range. Someone recommend ortofon 2m Blue.am I making a mistake not spending more? Seems you can go crazy with cartridge costs.I have a Prima Luna primium hp, a pro ject ds tube phono stage and a pair of Focal Electra 1028 Be. Appreciate your input.
128x128tastypeter

Showing 2 responses by chakster

My advice from the start was Pickering XSV-3000 with nude Stereohedron stylus, this MM cart (along with Stanton 881s mkII) is a clear winner imo! Not as cheap as they were years ago, but still bargains compared to what they can do for $300-400. 
I’ve noticed some problem with suspension only with 3 cartridges out of a bunch of 50 vintage cartridges i’ve owned, they are all from the mid ’70s, late ’80s.

Those carts are Technics (notorious for suspension problem), a few hardly used Victor X-1 for some reason and one NOS Glanz MFG-71L

Never had any problem with suspension/damper or styli with the rest of 47 different MM/MI cartridges including different samples of NOS Victor, Glanz etc.

The best way to check suspension condition is to use Hi-Fi Test LP. With this record anyone can measure the actual tonearm+cartridge resonance frequency. We can compare the actual test results with given cartridge compliance and given tonearm effective mass. If the cartridge suspension/damper is stiffer or softer the result will be different between the actual test with LP and for example theoretical test with this diagram

However, softened damper is easy to determine visually, in this case a cartridge with recommended tracking force is much closer to the record surface that it should be. They are so calles Lowriders! Those 3 cartridges i have mentioned above have had this problem. I’ve never seen an old cartridge with stiffer suspension in my life, only softened suspension!