Cartridge suggestions

elliottbnewcombjr

Using advanced stylus shapes with more contact surface in the grooves makes cleaning even more important. Clean Stylus is important. People who experience lots of disruptive static most often lack the proper cleaning skills. I recently improved my cleaning skills, and am enjoying my used LPs with SAS tip essentially static free.

It’s a lot easier to keep a stylus clean if it only plays clean records. That’s where LP playback cleanliness starts, imo.

I like Shure brushes ...Damped to steady LP irregularities, anti-static, and gathers small particles before the stylus gets to the grooves.

It sounds like you’re playing dirty records.

Jico wrote me that their replacement brushes are NOT damped, just a brush, so the upward force is different, a bit of guess work involved.

Guesswork isn’t likely to yield proper phono cartridge setup.
I wouldn’t use a phono cartridge that relied on a brush but if I did, I’d measure its effect with a proper VTF scale.

@chakster  

Did you read my post before you responded?

Did you read my post before you responded?

Yes, i just missed the price point of $500, sorry

Stanton 881s mkII cost about $350 nowadays and most of the other cartridges i have mentioned are under $700 and even better. Pickering XSV-3000SP is just at your price point and a perfect match for that EVO tonearm! 

Ideally a neutral and articulate cartridge as if anything too laid back might end up making the whole system a bit too mushy. As the phono stage only has MM capabilities, LO MC cartridge isn’t an option.

Cartridges used for Disc Mastering at studios like Sheffield Lab must be absolutely neutral. When Doug Sax recorded his best he used Stanton 881s mkII as his monitoring cartridge for Disc Mastering process. This is the reason i recommend them. Doug was one of the best mastering engineer in USA. There are many others from the industry in this article where AT-ML170 OCC and Technics EPC 100c mk4 also mentioned as reference standard cartridges, they are all neutral. You will not find an equal MM cartridge from the new manufacturers, those cartridges are exceptionally good. The cheapest is Stanton ($350), the most expensive is Technics (over $2000 today), the AT-ML170 is probably $700 just to give you the idea of the prices.    

So, HO MC, or MM/MI options please. Looking to keep this under 500 and used isn’t really an option.

High Output MC is nonsense, never buy them, almost any good MM/MI is better with clear benefits of stylus replacement option!

@chakster 

Thanks!

More info to share...

And the 9"EVO arm is fully adjustable FYI

(And the TT is not plastic...)

Any thoughts on Nagaoka cartridges? Had an MP110 once which I rather enjoyed...