Replace stylus or new cartridge?


Should I replace a stylus on an old (I bought it new a long time ago) Grado TLZ fir $325 or buy a new Nagaoka MB-300 for roughly twice that?

hedwigstheme

The TLZ was a premium Grado cartridge. I would buy the new stylus - the price is reasonable.

Where can you buy a new TLZ stylus for $325, or are you contemplating a retip of the original?

I use the TLZ and prefer it to many other cartridges that I’ve owned including moving coils. BTW, if you decide to get a different cartridge PM me and I will buy the TLZ from you if the price is reasonable!!

Yogi, thanks. It would never have occurred to me that Grado still sell those styli. For many years, the TLZ was my one and only cartridge, and I liked it very much. I still have that cartridge, but when I auditioned it in recent years, the performance seemed to have fallen off. In fact, this is perhaps the only vintage cartridge I own where I can say it may have deteriorated with age. Now I am tempted to spend some bucks to rejuvenate it. The XTZ stylus as I recall is nothing but a selected TLZ. And I am tempted to go for that at some point.