Shelter 201 Cartridge: I just put it into my system Aug. 6 2016

The 201 was on the TAS list for best budget cart for 2015.

And it's still there for the 2017 edition, and rightly so. When I'm in the mood for a run of Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Tony Bennett, Boz Scaggs, and other great renditions of the Great American Songbook, I swap in the Shelter 201.

johnnyb53 - How fussy is the 201 regarding install and setup?  I am kind of a clutz and have limited patience.  Plus, my tonearm is the difficult Thorens with the covered cartridge bay.

bondmanp,

My own cartridge setup situation is the opposite of yours--my tonearm has the standard 1/2" detachable headshell, so I don't have to perform close tolerance maneuvers to get my cartridges mounted.

I will say, however that even with a detachable headshell some cartridges are easier or harder than others, As I remember it, mounting and aligning the Shelter 201 was pretty straightforward--the tonearm leads slid on easily but snugly (though that can vary with the turntable/tonearm), I didn't have to either crimp nor expand the clips I was able to mount the cartridge with some of the standard screws that came with the cartridge. Its .3x.7 mil elliptical stylus wasn't particularly fussy, either. I did the overhang/alignment consistent with my turntable (Technics SL1210 M5G) and it sounded right with no further adjustment.

You also might benefit from the customer reviews on Needle Doctor. One user put it on a Thorens TD126 MkII.http://www.needledoctor.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7530/.f?sc=2&category=877

Listening now to the 201 with a Jico SAS-1 stylus in it. Yes, the neo-SAS costs more than the cartridge itself, but the SAS sounds mighty fine. Haven't listened to the original 201 stylus in a long while, but the SAS definitely took it to another level.

SAS does wonders for the lowly Shure M-97 as well .