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Cartridge Opinions - Sorry

Yeah, another dumb "what's your opinion on these cartridges" thread. Back in the late 80's we had dealers where you could listen to the stuff.

So anyhow I have a Linn LP12 with Ittok arm and a 30 year old Audioquest B200L cartridge. I'm running it through the phono stage of a Jeff Rowland Coherence One into a Spectral DMA90 through a set of Kef R300's.

I prefer a little more laid back sound (err on the side of forgiving instead of fatiguing) but I like a lot of upper end detail, precise soundstaging, air, etc.

So far I'm considering an Ortofon Quintet S Black, Hana SL or a Benz wood - something at or below the $1k level.

I'd love to hear any opinions, suggestions, and experiences with those cartridges or others in the price range. I could possibly go higher if there is something out there that really shines for less than $1,500.

Thanks.


klooker
tyray
657 posts
 
Firstly, it is rookie and not roockie.

So this is a relevant statement to this thread? Not at all.
tzh21y
1,654 posts
 
 the Denon 103 is a pretty nice cartridge for the money.  Its not perfect but it does many things very well sounding very natural on the right tonearm.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
cleeds
5,973 posts
 
mijostyn
... If you want a good cartridge you have to get yourself a Jan Jallaerts MC2 Formula 1. It easily out performs any cartridge ever made ...
Will you please tell us what makes this phono cartridge so outstanding? What pickup arm have you used it in?
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
 the Denon 103 is a pretty nice cartridge for the money.  Its not perfect but it does many things very well sounding very natural on the right tonearm.


There are many MM cartridge for nearly the same price with much better overall sound quality of any tonearm. 

The price of Denon is not the end, because there must be a SUT or MC phono stage to handle LOMC and super heavy tonearm. So the actual price is Denon + SUT or MC Phono. In this combination it is not cheap at all. 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
As for my opinion on this subject, the differences between most well made cartridges are relative to the flowery descriptions I see, minor.
The most obvious is output and dynamic range. Next is tonal balance. Some cartridges lean a little bright others a little bass heavy. Ralph is right. As long as a cartridge is tracking everything you throw at it, any preference is personal. MC cartridges in particular are vastly over priced and many do not represent a good value. Take a look at the Nagaoka MP500. Here is a cartridge for $800.00 with a fine line stylus, a boron cantilever and great reviews. I would bet it is a better rock and roll cartridge than most MCs. Soundsmith and Grado both make excellent reasonably price cartridges. The Kiseki Purple Heart is just as good as cartridges costing $10K  Price is absolutely no indication of quality when it comes down to MC cartridges once you get to a certain level of quality. The Ortofon Quintet Black S, the Clearaudio Essence and the Van Den Hull DDT-2 are excellent examples of cartridges using the best modern tech and materials at reasonable prices. After this it becomes purely a matter of taste, ego and tonearms. We have some fabulous tonearms on the market now but that is another subject.
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