Still looking for a new Moving Coil Cartridge

fleschler

"28,500 lps .... I should buy a mono cartridge"

Of course you should, I cannot believe you don't have one.

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I read/learned here the true advantages of a real mono, dipped my toe in the water, bought a Grado Mono, $100. made the big difference that was described here. I demonstrate the difference for all my friends, they end up getting a Mono cartridge themselves.

Next I bought an AT33 MC Mono body with a broken cantilever, and had Steve at VAS rebuild with Advanced Stylus Shape on Boron. Wonderful.

Two friends bought Mono cartridges Steve had ready to go. Luckily we live close enough to visit the shop and listen to various cartridges on Steve's system. Hearing them helps you commit to the higher cost,

Jim went Advanced on aluminum +/- $600. Another friend went Advanced stylus on boron, +/- $700. Mine was less as I provided the AT33 MC Mono body I bought via Aledo/Yahoo for $38. Shipping cost more than the body, just under $100. total.

Cameras: "Get Thee Out of Auto".

Mono LPs: "Get Thee a Mono Cartridge"!

Anyone near enough to me Plainfield, NJ 07062, come on by, have a listen. Or call Steve at VAS, Cliffwood, NJ 07721, go to his shop, what a dizzying treat that is, and meet his son Ray.

btw, VPI is in the same building as VAS.

Mono? Sure, ideally. But my Mayajima Zero mono is not as good, on mono, as my higher end Koetsu stereo. My higher end stereo Grado is better yet. Close, yes - but inferior refinement.

Unfortunately, with your budget, you’re not going to get much. You really need a Hana Umami Red MC cartridge before you will get anything listenable. That is the best bargain in hifi but still about $3500 ish.

@elliottbnewcombjr I am totally on board with the Manual Cleaning Method for looking after a LP. I don't use the owned US Tank the Neil Antin manual method has superseded the use of this.

Relating to the Hana SL, this is a Cart' I have not been attracted to, my own one has been sitting idling from non-use for quite a few years, that does not mean it is an unacceptable Cart', I just haven't been able to become Wed to it.  

I cannot argue with the use of a proper mono cartridge, but that is not what the OP was asking about.

And if the avoidance of surface noise is the prime consideration, then proper record cleaning is the sine qua non.

As for satisfying MC sound with a $600 price limit, I doubt if there is a good answer. Any MC at that price is probably (here goes!) inferior to an MM/MI of the same price. I admit I have not dabbled in cheap MC cartridges, but I have gone up into the realms of 3-4k MC cartridges to find competition for good MI cartridges, and 5k before I was convinced I had found something superior.