2. analog
  3. 1200637569

Best Cartridges for the Money You've Experienced

I'd like to ask those of you who have tried many a cartridge over the years to nominate ones that you feel are among the very best and are available today, new or used, at a substantially lower price than most of today's reference-level cartridges. Feel free to mention great cartridges from years past that still show up now and then on Audiogon.

I currently have a Koetsu Rosewood Signature mounted on an SME-5 arm. I'd like to go up from there in sound quality without having to rob a bank.
bolson
tpsonic
1,092 posts
 
Having gone through many a cartridge(Clearaudio Ref,Koetsu,Mysbi,Levinson,Symphonic,Dynavector and Benz),I find the baby Allaerts to have been the most satisfying.Not that the others weren't good,but the combination of virtues is extremely well balanced IMHO.
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
Shure V15 Type IV - best deal in the world...

-RW-
palasr
528 posts
 
I'll take my DL-103 (note: NOT an 'R') any day over just about anything under $1K. The usual disclaimers apply.

-Richard
Ag insider logo xs@2x
rauliruegas
13,105 posts
 
Dear Bolson: Of course you can grow-up from your Koetsu for " penauts ", please take a look:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1200430667&read&3&4&

Regards and enjoy the music.
raul.
xronx
55 posts
 
"I currently have a Koetsu Rosewood Signature mounted on an SME-5 arm. I'd like to go up from there in sound quality without having to rob a bank."

From the level of an Koetsu Rosewood Signature I think it's hard to find anything substantial better...but you have a lot of choices which sound different....people who tend to buy 5000$+ carts, in the first place to have the most expensive toy, might say something different.

I have listened to different Koetsus, Kiseki, SPU's, Ikeda, Audio Note, Shelter, Benz, EMT, Transfiguration...

Imho from a certain level of performance it's more a question of taste and not of absolute quality...not to forget system and component matching.

If you want something good from the past...I would recommend to watch out for Kiseki's and I can also reccomend there step up Transformers. I use a Blue Goldspot and the matching MCT-2 step up.
More to discover