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Cartridge

My son is trying Vinyl and so I bought him a Pro-Ject Expression II with a Pro-Ject speed box. The guy at music direct said the cart on the unit is garbage and I believe him after looking at it. My question is what would be a good cart for this set up. Carts I have looked at are Dynavector 10x5 and Clearaudio Beta. Are these any good or do you experts have any other suggestions. Also, the carts have to be MM or high output MC. I am not ready to buy him a stand alone Phono Stage.

It has been many years since I have been into Vinyl and my knowledge is very little. Thanks for all your suggestions in advance.
diamonds
piedpiper
753 posts
 
To clarify, a good table and arm is a little more of apriority than the cartridge. A better TT/arm will allow the cartto it's job. As I said before, in your position of possibly upgrading the table, it wouldn't be stupid to put a $500 cart on your table but you would be throwing away half of it's superiority on the existing rig.
vinylrowe
31 posts
 
Wow... lots of reasonable responses to your question. As an owner of three Pro-Ject tables including the Expression 11 I would say that Viridian's advise is on the mark. The table is a little dark sounding particularly compared to a Rega. I started out with the Audio Technica 440 (which is a little bright) and found it to be synergistically a good match ---the carbon fibre arm has an effective mass of about 9 grams and the fairly compliant 440 matched the relatively low mass of the arm quite well.

Smart move getting the speedbox as that liitle device provides improved speed stability and elevates the performance of this table even further.

If you desire a richer sound but not quite as detailed on top, the Grado Gold (which I own) is the ticket, but it is twice as expensive as the 440. The Grado people in fact make the Pro-Ject K4 and K6 cartridges. Both these are an easy match for a normally aspirated phono stage (i.e MM phono stage). The AT sells for about 90, the Grado about 180. I also own the Shure 97 and The Denon 110 103 and 160 which are great cartridges but seem to work better on other tables such as the Rega which has a heavier arm.

Good luck, have fun, and enjoy the vinyl experience.
diamonds OP
14 posts
 
In talking to my local dealer I am not going to upgrade the cart. Instead I am going to upgrade the table. You will see it on Audiogon today. Thanks again for all your help!
diamonds OP
14 posts
 
What do you guys think of a Music Hall 7? Let me know. Thanks!
piedpiper
753 posts
 
Rega is coming out with an upgraded P3 shipping any day now. My guess is that this will be the one to beat at or near it's price which should be similar if not the same as it's current $695 list. I'd pair it with the forementioned Grado Sonata or Clearaudio Aurum Beta S depending on your taste. Grado designed his carts for the Rega BTW.
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