Clear Audio Concept Wood / Satisfy Carbon Tone Arm w/Concept MC (replacement cartridge?)


I have a Clear Audio Concept Wood turntable with Satisfy Carbon Tone Arm that originally came with a Concept MC cartridge. During a move the Concept MC cartridge was damaged - the arm was bumped out of the mount and the cartridge ran across the table - ripping the stylus out of the cartridge.

In searching for a replacement cartridge I ran across a brand new Goldring Elite MC cartridge for sale at a very reasonable price, by a highly rated seller, on Audiomart.

Any thoughts on the Goldring Elite cartridge? and compatibility with the Satisfy Carbon Tone Arm?

My phono pre-amp is a Parasound Zphono XRM that is feeding my Kinki Studios Ex-M1 plus integrated amp.

josephp732

I was looking at the Hana SL. What differences did you notice? I generally liked Concept MC for my main listening tastes of jazz & vocals. The new Goldring Elite that is available is being sold for ~$400 (normally $1,200). It has some good reviews but it seems to be a bit finicky and you really need to play with loading up the cartridge to get it dialed in. In the past had a Goldring Eroica LX in a Music Hall TT and also generally like the sound signature. 

My Marantz tt-15 is made by clearaudio and uses the Satisfy arm. Here’s what I’ve tried:

1. Concept MC cartridge: a perfect match for the arm, the Concept MC gave a nice present sound with a crisp (not too bright) top end. I put so many hours on it, I retired it for a

2. AT-VM740ml moving magnet cart. Very nice balanced sound, better bass than the Concept, maybe a little less presence than the concept. A very satisfying experience. However, I missed the MC presence so I then moved on to a

3. AT- OC9x ml. This is a fine cartridge, especially in light of the price. I’ve had it now for about a year ( maybe 300 hours ), and it’s sounding great on my Marantz. If I had to replace it tomorrow, I would buy another one. Also, Audio Technica offers a trade-in program credit for new cartridges. ( in the USA).

The rest of my system- Vintage Signet Step-Up transformer, Hagerman Comet 3 phono pre, Marantz PM17 mkii amplifier, Monitor Audio Silver 100 6g.

Good luck on your search-

" Also, Audio Technica offers a trade-in program credit for new cartridges. ( in the USA)."

timmerswalking-

You might want to verify that.  It appears only the ART series is eligible-not the OC9.

A-T Moving Coil Exchange Program - Styli & Accessories - Cartridges | Audio-Technica

I have a crashed ART9 that need to be evaluated-thanks for the reminder!

OC9 series is a great value performer nevertheless.