Cartridges

I go with @dogberry 

There is magic in many LPs.   Get the cart.

@baylinor   Forget unipivots.  They offer nothing a properly supported arm cannot and will always be unstable.  I have tried them.  You cannot 'adjust' a flawed design.  What to 'adjust'?   It just hangs.

A good cartridge will improve all your records. So if you have lots of records, the answer is obvious.

Last night, i pulled my very nice-sounding ART-9 MC cart, and put my Acutex M320 III STR cartridge in.

I haven't listened to it lately, but after some adjustments with the settings on my Modwright SWP 9.0 Sig phono stage, I was amazed at hearing the best sounding music I've ever heard from my system. I don't know what I did differenly, but I was captivated by the extrordinarily great sound I was hearing.

I know you can spend any amount you want to on a cartridge, but my Acutex only cost me around $90 a few years ago, yet deliverers mind-blowing sound (to my ears), on my middle-of-the-road system, but whatever you do, enjoy the music!

Regards,

Dan

 the folks who put down the uni pivot is because it is too difficult for their level of mechanical knowledge to adjust it properly. 

What an arrogant statement.

Not in my case mate.

I have listened to VPi unipivots for 30 years, set up a few, along with many other unipivots - Hadcock, Mayware, Audiocraft, and many others - still own a Naim Aro.

It is the VPI unipivot that is the issue - it's not a great arm. It might meet your standards, it doesn't meet mine - and has nothing to do with set up. The Naim Aro or even an older Graham unipivot will leave it for dead.

Lunacy to put a $5-12k cartridge on an average performing tonearm. Yes, it will sound better, but upgrading the tt & arm for the same budget will yield much more.

Didn't mean to show arrogance, sorry for those offended. I see many posts of folks who don't even attempt to install a cart on a uni pivot and have to get a "professional" to do it for them and charge them multiple hours labor to do so. That's what I am referring to, if you ever want a cart to sound right to your ears, you must learn to install it yourself and know how to tinker with it since all the slightest adjustments will result in a different sound. If you don't learn that, your cart will always end up under performing. Carts always end up needing "tune ups", like anything else. Many folks end up disenchanted with their unipivot because of that lack of mechanical know-how. I personally am very pleased with working on my uni pivot since it is more challenging to get it right than other arms. Just me.