Newb on the loose


Have a ClearAudio Concept TT with ClearAudio Satisfy carbon arm with a Denon DL 110 attached. It's all plugged into a Jolida JD9 II phono pre. It sounds nice, but I think the table/arm are capable of better. And yes, I have tubes coming for the Jolida. Anyways, being somewhat unschooled as of today, I'm unsure of what to watch for as far as arm/cart/phono pre matching goes.
Would you gentlemen be so kind as to let me know what carts are compatible with my set up please. Prefer HOMC, but willing to try a quality MM as well. I don't want to purchase a step up transformer at this point, so that limits my options.
Anyone have any suggestions?? Something I can live with for a year or two before upgrading again. And please don't say Denon DL 110 please.

Thanks,
Shawn
128x128shawnlh
+1 to Tketcham's post. Based on the OP's posts to date, recommending (or buying) different cartridges would be throwing the OP's money into the air without knowing what direction the wind is blowing.

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One other question, can you "over cart" the table? I mean the Concept is a nice table, but would dropping a five thousand dollar cart really benefit? And yes I'm exaggerating, but you get the point.
Good question. I'm unfamiliar with your table and tonearm, but the answer is likely to be, "yes". IME with many vinyl setups, the most productive use of dollars is to upgrade the table, phono stage and tonearm first, and the cartridge very much last. A better table, tonearm or phono stage will always pay sonic dividends. A better cartridge may not, depending on the rest of the system.

EXAMPLE:
I currently have two vinyl rigs (table + arm), both feeding the same (very high quality) phono stage. One rig retails for ~$1,000, the other for ~$12,000.

I also have two cartridges, a $200 MM and an $8,000 LOMC. Normally, the MM is on the cheaper rig and the LOMC is on the costlier rig. They both sound good for what they are. The costlier setup is better, amazing in fact, but the cheaper setup makes enjoyable, listenable, danceable music.

Occasionally, as when visitors seem to believe that dropping an umpti-thousand dollar cartridge on an entry level rig will produce miracles, I swap the cartridges around to demonstrate what can happen.

After demonstrating each rig with its normal cartridge, I switch the LOMC onto the cheap rig. They've just heard how marvelous it sounds, but the second it hits the groove on the cheap rig, everyone assumes that it's broken or that I've bungled the setup. It's not and I haven't. It's just that a superbly revealing LOMC displays all the warts and inadequacies of the cheap rig. It sounds like dreck.

Once they recover, I pop the MM onto the big rig to complete the demonstration. Nobody's expecting much, so they're invariably astonished when it sings waaaaay above its head. It sounds glorious, far better than it ever could on the cheap rig.

A cartridge needs a good foundation to perform its best. That foundation is provided by the table and tonearm, each of which can screw up the sound in more ways than anyone can count. The better the table and arm, the better any cartridge will sound. The sonic abilities of many inexpensive cartridges are far higher than most people have experienced because, let's face it, few people with $200 cartridges put them on $12,000 rigs. Yet it works surprisingly well.

Upgrade the foundation first and your money will never be wasted. OTOH, upgrading the superstructure on an inadequate foundation is often so.

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Therefore, +1 to Swampwalker's final point in his post above. The MM/MI thread he mentioned contains a wealth of info on less expensive cartridges that can, on the right rig, sound far better than most people expect.
"Upgrade the foundation first and your money will never be wasted. OTOH, upgrading the superstructure on an inadequate foundation is often so."

I believe Harry Belafonte said it best: "House built on a cheap foundation will not standÂ… Oh no!"
Thanks for the responses gentlemen. I appreciate your time and efforts, and some of my questions have been answered very well. I think I'm still going to experiment with carts just to see what they sound like as it's going to be sometime before I upgrade my equipment. I'll purchase used units so hopefully I can resell without taking a big hit. And it's nice to know that my current phono pre/tt arm can handle a wide variety of carts. My next TT purchase will be a ClearAudio Ovation and a Decware phono stage, but that is several months down the road.
Thanks again fellas.
Lew,

Harry B, Abraham L and I (if less eloquently) all borrowed from a prior source.
See Matthew 7:24, Mark 3:25 and Luke 6:48. ;-)