Choices: Nagaoka MP-50, MP-300, or Garrott P77i?


Visitor (now ex-friend! ... just kidding ... kind of) castrated my beloved Nagaoka MP-30.
It had an unknown amount of hours on it and was probably due for a new stylus... none-the-less, I'm now in the market for a new stylus. Thank goodness I've got the Jico SAS-MM1 on hand as a backup.

Anyhow - for Rock + Jazz listening, any thoughts on these three?

I can buy a complete MP-50 cartridge, a brand new MP-300 stylus to fit the MP-30 body, or go completely off the deep-end and try a Garrott P77i all for about the same amount of money.

I really liked the Nagaoka MP-30's sound, so the MP-300 stylus SEEMS to make the most sense. A part of me, however, says while I'm doing this I may as well upgrade to the MP-50 or try the Garrott.

The only Garrott I've ever heard was the Optim-S and, while I liked part of it A LOT, I found it a bit laid back in the high-end. Not sure how the P77i would compare and if it might be a bit more "open".
vinyladdict
Hey Raul - Thanks for the suggestions. The Empire is a P-Mount cartridge; the Ortofon I've looked at before and my main concern with it is that it has a compliance of 40mm/µN (!!); the Arzden's are intriguing - I've never heard of them before.
Dear Vinyladdict: The Empire and the Azden are P-mount type
designs and comes with its dedicated universal adaptor, both
are very good and the P-mount design IMHO is no drawback in
anyway

The Azden YM-P50VL IMHO is superior to any other cartridge (
either LOMC or MM/MI at any price. ) I
own/owned/borrowed/heard in all my audio life. Nothing I
know come close to its high quality performance. In the last
three days I was testing my sample against other top MM/MI's
and against the Dynavector XV-1s and Ortofon A-90 LOMC
cartridges and either can cope with the Azden performance
level.

Btw, don't worry about that high compliance figure on the
Ortofon M20E Super, please read here ( my last post on the
thread ) about:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1265682199

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.
Well, after much mental volleying, I placed an order for a P77i from Decibel Hi-Fi in Australia.

Brian at Decible tells me it should be here in about a week! I'll report back as to if it was the right decision or not...

Raul - I'm very very intrigued by the Arzden carts - still doing some research and may end up with one of those yet.
Dear vinyladdict: You don't have to worry anymore, that Azden top of the line samples already sold.

Today the persons that bought it can be proud to own IMHO the best quality performance cartridge ever made!!!!!

Please share with us your near future experiences with the 77i.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.
No offense Raul - but I've been following your thread over many months and your "best quality performance cartridge ever made!!!!!" seems to change every few weeks.

I'll report back on the P77i once I get it.