Best Budget Phono Cartridge?

viridian

I believe that you are disagreeing With Galen on this one.

It's not me so much disagreeing with Galen , or whoever wrote that for Galen. It's Shure, John Risch, Roy Gandy, Paul McGowan and so many others. I've emailed Galen for a correction, and he's already responded by saying he "will address the issues" in his article over the next few days. I'm inclined to take him at his word - he enjoys an excellent reputation in this industry, which I'm guessing is why you put so much faith in his site.

... Gandy suggests that record cleaning is unnecessary as the stylus will simply push the dirt out of the way. I am not comfortable with that but YMMV.

No, I absolutely agree with you on that. I think it's a nutty claim, frankly.

@cheeg - in case you have not yet decided on a cartridge - here’s a vote for the Denon103 - why?

Right of the bat - this is a very good cartridge, i.e. as long as it is compatible with your arm

Next - there are quite a few versions available

1. Zu has a version mounted in their aluminum head-shell
2. Soundsmith can pprovide a few tweaks from nuding to wooden head-shells
3. you can buy a number of third party wooden head-shells and mount a nuded 103 into them yourself if you have the courage and abilities :-)
4. or simply eopoxy a brass shim to provide more stability (see link)

http://image99.net/blog/files/23c020f75290d3392577113371f4dc94-38.html

So my point is - the 103 can grow with you and your system

I have a standard 103 and one with a Soundsmith modified cantilever/stylus - both fitted with the brass shim. For the same money I do not believe there is a significantly better cartridge than the 103.

It has been a workhorse of broadcasting for decades and with the tweaks can compete with cartridges many times its price.

It also responds very nicely to a good arm - I have an Audiomods Classic arm that brings out the very best this cartridge is able to provide.

That’s my vote - Steve

@viridian -- thanks for following up!  After you and cleeds got into it, I decided to bow out and let tempers cool; sounds like the two of managed to find some common ground. 

Soooo... it's been an interesting jaunt; I ordered the 440MLB, despite your (legitimate) concerns about VTA, since it's been discontinued and they may not be around much longer.  I also ordered a Pfanstiehl 4822-DEE-P stylus for my Stanton cartridge, assuming that would be the backup for my 440 on chewed-up records. 

I mounted the 440 last weekend, and have been fiddling with it ever since.  It sounds good, but not great; I probably still don't have the ideal geometry, but it's pretty close, and the sound is not quite there.  Mids are very nice, but the cymbals don't quite come alive, and the bass is a tad weak.  I've tried different VTFs, from 1.25 to 2.0, and played with the VTA (currently it's slightly "positive", as Galen would say (head lower than tail)*, but it varies from neutral to positive with different record thicknesses). I've positioned the cartridge in the head with a mirrored alignment gauge, and listened to different records to be sure it's not just bad vinyl.  I've tried different anti-skate settings, from zero to the VTF settings, but I suspect the anti-skating dial is pretty inaccurate.  What I've concluded, over the past week, is that I'm wasting my time trying to get the cartridge to sound good on this TT; it's old, noisy, and the arm is probably not that good, even if I have the cartridge perfectly adjusted.  I'm not ready to buy a new TT (or even a good used one), so I will live with my Stanton/Pfanstiehl combo until I can get a TT that's worth a better cartridge.

Thanks for your interest and for all the good advice; I did learn something from the interchange on VTA definitions, so the whole thing was a pretty positive experience for me.

Happy listening! 
Casey

* cleeds, please don't react; I know that's not the real meaning of the VTA, but it's a convenient metaphor, and besides, I don't have accurate enough equipment to measure the real VTA, or the SRA, for that matter). 

@williewonka -- thanks for your post on the Denon 103 -- it does sound like a strong contender in the budget cartridge category.  I initially decided against it because one of the Agon replies said my Parasound 2100 would not provide enough output from its phono stage to work well with the 103's 0.3mV output.  But if I get inspired, I might look into how much it takes to set one up a decent SUT...