As @mattmiller and @mesch recommended, I used an Ortofon 2M Red which was included in my Pro-Ject Carbon Debut Esprit SB bundle. After a year I "upgraded" the cartridge by replacing the 2M Red stylus with a 2M Blue stylus. There was a noticeable performance improvement IMHO. However the price of the upgraded Blue stylus was more that the cost of the original 2M Red Cartridge.
Best Budget Phono Cartridge?
After upgrading my system for CDs and SACDs recently, I pulled my old turntable out of storage to see how it would stack up. It sounded pretty sick, and my best guess is that an old (very old) Stanton 681EEE is the culprit. I don’t want to spend a lot of money on this experiment, but if I can find a decent cartridge in the $100-250 range it would be fun to see how my old vinyl compares. I’m looking at the following new or NOS cartridges:
Audio Technica AT7V MM or AT-F2 MC
Denon DL 103 MC or DL 110 MC;
Grado Prestige Gold1
Sumiko Pearl MM
Ortofon 2M Blue MM
Shure M97xE
Would any of you like to weigh in on this list, or add a favorite of your own? I’ll be inputing to a Parasound New Classic 2100 preamp.
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- 51 posts total
- 51 posts total