Cartridge Suggestions for a Black Widow Tonearm

A little correction: The BW TA is low EFFECTIVE MASS; not low COMPLIANCE.

'Compliance' refers to a cartridge's suspension material: more squishy = high compliance; less squishy = low compliance.

The BW has a low effective mass and so it's high compliance cartridge friendly. Most cartridges with high compliance suspensions tend to be moving magnet cartridges - but there are exceptions.

If you go to http://www.cartridgedb.com, there is a list of almost every cartridge in the world! so you can find the compliance of your cartridge. Then, use the interactive graph to determine if your particular cartridge/arm combo will fall inside acceptable limits (of resonance generation.)

It is also not particularly rigid if I remember, I would stay with MM. MCs generate considerably more energy in tracking so they are best used with either a high mass or rigid lower mass arm. The Grace 707 worked well with some MCs despite having a 6 gram mass but off the top of my head I think the BW is more like 4. As Nsgarch said you can look it up but with this arm I think you will find MM works better

I agree with all of the above. That said, a vintage XLM MKII Improved ADC cartridge is a good match provided you can find one that doesn't ride too low.

I used to use the Ortofon OM 20 and 30 series that was low mass. It matched up nicely with the widow and tracked most everything. (Did fly out of the groove like a rocket launcher on Telarc 1812 when the cannons blasted).

Decent sound for the bucks.

Have Fun.

I owned a Black Widow a number of years ago.... I am not aware of a low compliance verson. Mosin is correct the BW does not like moving coils.