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Best cartridge for very old worn vinyl

Fellow vinyl junkies,
I have a weakness for old vinyl (particularly early oval Argo choral recordings circa 1958-1969).
Almost invariably these suffer from worn grooves, the effects of god knows what misaligned agricultural arms/cartridges over several decades, even the ones marked “near mint” by professional sellers.
I have a range of cartridges, including Decca London Reference, Koetsus, SPUs and Shure V15 111.
These go in an FR66 arm. Not all of these are necessarily ideal for this job...:)
What do you guys reckon is the best cartridge for these types of records?
Key requirements are not to be flustered by the challenges these ancient slabs of vinyl hold while doing the best job of producing something resembling music ?
Cheers !
128x128howardalex
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cleeds
5,944 posts
 
teo_audio
the shibata, or SAS, or Micro-ridge, or Micro-line, they will have greater contact area, but will also pull more deep hard packed detritus out of the groove. And thus will require more cleaning of the stylus ...
That won't happen if you first use a good record cleaner, which I think is a must for anyone playing older records.
edgewear
543 posts
 
Just curious, but why would you accept worn copies of Argo records? Most titles from this catalogue can be found in NM condition for $10-15.

But apart from that, I agree with chakster that cartridges with advanced stylus profiles are usually most succesful in suppressing surface noise and other signs of wear, provided the record has been thoroughly cleaned (that’s indeed a ’must’).




mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Nostalgia only goes so far. It is all about the music and if it is that special to you get a digital copy and hang the old records on the wall. There is nothing more irritating than a noisy worn record. Well I suppose that is not entirely true. Elizabeth Warren's voice is right up there. 
edcyn
1,876 posts
 
I applaud anybody who might wear out an Argo Record. That's givin' it some love.
howardalex's avatar
howardalex OP
64 posts
 
Early Argo label with grooved oval logo is awesome. Digital doesn’t do it for me (sadly...)
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