Which cart works with Ortofon AS309S 12inch arm

I found it very difficult to find out. The UK importer sought advice from Ortofon for me and even then it was'nt clear. I think the conclusion was 14 to 15gm, but I asked a while ago

Arm mass for AS-309S is 3.5-4g without headshell.

The Ortofon 2M Black might be too compliant for this arm... If you use a really light headshell (6-7g or less) you might get away with it.

Not sure about the Shelter because the compliance ratings aren't easy to come by.

Bottom line, this is an arm best suited for the stiffer variety of moving coil cartridges, including SPUs. Cadenza and Kontrapunkt series should work fine here also.

Full disclosure, I work for the manufacturer. Just wanted to help!

Effective mass of 3.5-4 grams without headshell makes absolutely no sense to me on this arm but I could be wrong.

If I am not mistaken, Jelco makes these arms for Ortofon and the 9" version of the arm most closely resembling the 309S with Jelco's stock headshell (12 grams) is 20 grams. Add another 3" of arm tube and I cannot see how this arm would not have an effective mass with the stock Jelco headshell of much less than 23-24 grams and even more with the SPU headshell.

As I say, I could be wrong.

Hi Fld!!! I have a Raven One with the Ortofon arm and use a Dynavector 20X HO cart. This was set up by Jeff at Highwater Sound, and Ive been very happy with it. Very good but not "incredible" soundstaging, excellent imaging, extremely quiet, nice midrange and good bass. As someone else wrote in one of the threads, system synergy comes into play here, and maybe the reason I like the sound I'm getting is the fleshed-out sound of the phono section of my modded Conrad Johnson PV-5 preamp (tubes) combined with the solid state bass and general clarity of my Belles 350A amp. I'm sure the Dynacector would work for you, but as they say, there are many paths to Nirvana.--Mrmitch

Thank you Mrmitch...