Cartridge, Compliance, try what in my JVC UA-7082 Arm?

The best cartridge you can use with ease on Victor tonearm is Victor cartridges. Make sense? They are match in heaven to be used on this arm. Actually this is a top of the line tonearm made by JVC/Victor, their best model, a longer version of UA-7045.

What was the best MM cartridge made by JVC Victor ?

X-1 with Beryllium cantilever and Shibata stylus tip.
X1II with Beryllium cantilever and Shibata stylus tip.
X1IIe with Titanium Pipe cantilever with Elliptical tip.

You can’t go wrong with any of them, personally i have tried many samples of them all. I must say that X-1 normally has softened suspension and behave like a lowrider, so this model is problematic.

The X-1II was better for me and adored by many on here, search in the old threads about MM carts.

The X-1IIe is high resolution cartridge, cheaper than its brother X-1II, but very nice too.

For some reason, if you need some other cartridges, make sure they are MID COMPLIANCE, a low compliance cartridges also too heavy for use on UA-7082 tonearm without special Victor Subweight which you don’t have, also with your defective rubber grommet your counterweight will fell off simply under its own weight when you will balance the cartridge and move it all the way to the end for use with heavier MC carts.

A high compliance cartridges like Shure is not optimal for this arm and must be avoided in theory if you care about tonearm/cartridge resonance frequency.

Audio-Technica cartridges are normally Mid Compliance and you can use them!

This is a counterweight position with normal MM cart and lightweight headshell, as you can see the counterweight is behind the rubber grommet even on a lighter UA-7045. When it’s too far on your heavier UA-7082 the grommet simply can’t resist the weight and the counterweight sag down at 45 degree (too bad).

Actually Victor UA-7082 can be used even with Ortofon SPU cartridges, but ONLY with victor subweight screwed to the armtube on the back, and only when you will replace your defective rubber grommet.

Victor designed amazing LOMC cartridges such as DIRECT COUPLE MC-1, MC-L10 and MC-L1000 , those are low compliance and made for this arm as the reference models! Seach on audiogon and you will find threads about those unique models. I am using MC-L10 now on UA-7082 with subweight, some more Victor from my collection.

Good luck!

Elliot.
Right now I am running a Glanz MFG610LX on my 7082 and very happy all round.
But I do have my eye on a Victor MC-1 which as Chakster says should be a match made in heaven.
However this is a fairly low output of just 0.2mv so you would likely need a step up transformer.
And it is pretty fragile so a lot of care needs to be taken.
I use an old and simple Denon sut for my MC carts and it has plenty of gain for my needs.

My current Victor MC-L10 is magical with Luxman silver SUT (also relatively cheap $500 vintage toroidal SUT). However, my friend @nandric said the MC-1 sound like an MM cartridge to his ears :) 

Victor MM are giant killers! Super easy to drive with any MM phono stages and truly outstanding in details and resolution. I prefer Victor black headshells over conventional silver on those arms. 

It is interesting to see than MC-1 was twice as much in price compared to X-1IIe, but nowadays the situation different (the Victor X-1IIe is equal to the price on second hand MC-1 now). 

I believe the reason is that MC-1 coil wire connected to the cantilever is very fragile and one channel malfunction is pretty common for MC-1, it's very hard to find a perfect sample. I bought 2 and the one claimed to be working can only reproduce one channel after arrival, pretty sad, looks like new in the box. 

But X-1IIe and X-1II survived and does not have any technical problems in its construction even after 30-40 years. The X-1II also have beryllium cantilever and Shibata tip like MC-1. 

 

From your collection: Audio Technica AT440ML.

@chakster 

It seems to me impossible that more modern cartridges cannot be used with the 7082