Cartridge Upgrade - Nagaoka or Goldring

@mr_m

I have owned the Stanton 881S for a long time. In my system, the Nagaoka is the superior cartridge. in fact any of the Nagaoka’s will out perform the Stanton. you don’t listen to specs, you listen to the cartridge. IMHO.

Nagaoka is a Low compliance MM (6cu)
Stanton is High compliance MM (30cu)

You can’t use these cartridges on the same tonearm, at least one arm cannot be ideal for both of them.

When you say Nagaoka which exact model do you mean? As i said the MP-500 is a good one (Boron cantilever, Line Contact tip), but the rest of them are inferior.

Stanton 881s mkII cost $350 with Stereohedron stylus tip and it’s cheaper than most of the Nagaoka you can buy today, except for the models with bonded conical tip and related entry level models.

With all my respect i will trust professionals like Doug Sax , here is the article.

I know that specs are not always everything and the Nagaoka gets good reviews.

I have never seen a bad review for anything in audio, all reviews are good nowadays, almost for everything.

But I read the specs for 1042(Nude diamond line contact)

Line Contact is much better profile, you can read this article from SoundSmith

I never heard of Pickering. Will research.

I bet people like you trust Michael Fremer? So you can read his article about Norman Pickering. Stanton was his plan manager and later bought his company. In the 80’s, when the best Stanton and Pickering cartridges were made, it was the same company owned by Walter O. Stanton.

Mr. Stanton invented the interchangeable needle grips !

Now you can listen to the last interview with Norman Pickering, thanks to Michael Fremer, the audio link is in the end of the article.

Strange that you never heard about Pickering, it was one of the greatest brand in audio in America.

Pickering cartridges with Stereohedron styli like XSV-3000s, XSV-4000s with Samarium Cobalt Magnets are great MM for very reasonable cost today. Some more expensive models like Low Impedance series (XLZ-4500s and XLZ-7500s) are simply the best from this brand and absolutely amazing cartridges (they are very rare).

I've been using Goldring 1042 for years with the Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm and have no plans to replace it. Bought it from analogueseduction.net from the UK. Sounds very good with all kinds of music that I listen to. Can't speak of classical music, but for jazzrock, acoustic music and vocals I find it satisfactory or better. It is very alive but does not 'throw' the sound at you, very dynamic. Well, so is the Nottingham turntable. Nagaoka MP500 might be more refined but I like the sound to have some 'edge and bite'. Yes, upgrading your table is a good idea indeed.

Those pickerings are very nice.  I never see them NOS anymore.

Those pickerings are very nice.  I never see them NOS anymore.

My Pickering XSV/4000 cartridge is still sealed, the rest of the samples are opened. Still hunting for them, NOS are very rare indeed