Are these prices good used condition or NOS? Anyway these discussions got me curious and I bought an NOS 881s for $300.
Great price for a NOS unit, definitely a bargain!
I never buy beaten or bad condition cartridges, so when i share my notes about price statistics it’s for a perfect cartridges only (lightly used). Normally NOS units are more expensive, but depends on the exact model, some cartridges are very rare. Stanton is not so rare like some Japanese cartridges from the same era, but it depends on the brand and model.
Stereohedron stylus can be used for 1200 hrs, so even when you’re buyin used Stanton or Pickering (with this type of stylus only) it can be used for a long time and gently used samples are worth to look for too (imo).
I have some expensive MC cartridges too. I put it on my Ikeda 407 and am very impressed. This isn’t supposed to be a recommended combination but it’s been playing for 2 weeks and sounds great. $300 very well spent.
Yes, this is exactly what i mean, some mid priced MM are just great and that particular model of Stanton with Stereohedron stylus was Doug Sax’s monitoring cartridge at
Sheffield Lab Disc mastering. For your particular tonearm a lower compliance Pickering XSV-3000SP (
only SP version designed for higher mass tonearms) is better match in terms of resonance. Stanton 881s is equal to Pickering XSV/3000 (compliance 30cu), but Pickering SP version compliance is 15cu and it was the latest model is 3000 series.
Glad you like Stanton 881, it’s American classics and most of the modern MM cartridges simply can’t compete to Stanton 881, 980 and 981 (also Pickering 3000, 4000, 4500, 5000 and 7500 models). However, the higher the model number - the higher the price and quality.
