Best Cartridges for the Money You've Experienced

Lyra Argo

Several months ago I would certainly have said Denon DL103. However, the increase in performance for the money is unbelievable when going to the Argo. The Argo has the punch, life and boldness of the Denon with added refinement and resolution I would not have expected for this price.

The Audio-Technica AT440MLa I just bought. Wow! What a difference over some other cartidges I've used, including some higher end makes that should be ashamed of themselves. This is the real thing!

The magic of this cartridge is it's ability to play the tracks towards the end of the record without the inner groove distortion that I hated so much. I can't explain how happy this makes me! Another great thing is it's very light tracking force, which saves on both record and stylus wear. The only drawback is that it's so light it can skip easily, from vibrations, so now I'm going to have to find a way to isolate my table better. No dancing just yet!

I've heard complaints that this cartridge is too bright and CD like, but that doesn't bother me because some of my LP's needed to be brightened up, and I don't despise CD sound anyway.

Probably the best MM cartridge at any price. If I decide to upgrade, I'll probably stick with this brand.

"Probably the best MM cartridge at any price."

I appreciate your enthusiasm for your experience with the AT but, have you really tried ALL the available MM cartridges that you can even begin to say such a thing. I'm sure Raul would add that the arm/cartridge relationship needs to be considered as paramount.

Correction: "ONE of the best at any price". Realistically though, do you think everyone can afford to try ALL MM cartridges available? I'd rather collect LP's than cartridges, and I've found one that sounds great and does what I want after trying some others that should have performed better than their reputation or price would indicate. I've found the level of inner groove distortion on these unacceptable and no better than the generic cartridge that came with my table!

At $179 the AT-440MLa is not cheap in my opinion, but worth it. After that price level it starts moving into MC territory, which then becomes a different story and is where most of the attention is. I think any gains in performance from a $500 or $3000 MM over this one would be very minimal at best, and at that level most audiophiles wouldn't even consider looking at a MM anyway.

So I think it's fair to say this is one of the best MM's at any price.

Chris,

As you may know, there are a lot of choices in MMs up to $2500 if you count the Grados, and I think you'll find many who will disagree with your assessment that the differences between them and the AT are "very minimal at best." There certainly seems to be a market for them, the Clearaudios and Grados being quite popular.

No offense,and sorry to be so literal, but the fact that you're willing to comment so definitively without having heard them says more about your enthusiasm than the cartridges.