opinions on the blue point special

glr, i tink all the posts above are basically correct - w/one glaring exception - the one that sez the bps is a piece of garbage. it may be many tings, but a piece of trash it definitely ain't. may be better or worse in some systems than others, compared w/other cartridges both more-n-less expensive than it, but it doesn't make it garbage. excesive hyperbole here, imho.

due to your correct comments about the difficulty in trying to match a cartridge to your system, i'd suggest (for those of us on a budget!) trying to get as much info as possible, from reviews, a-gon, comments/listening to friends' systems, etc. then, set yer budget, & try to find the best, most expensive pre-owned/demo cartridge ewe can, that made it to yer short-list of what ya may tink will work in yer system. while it may not ultimately be the best cartride for yer system, it will surely be at least as good as anything yule be able to buy brand-gnu at its price, & it will save ya lotsa time-n-money trying to audition multiple cartridges.

meantime, i'm currently using an ortofon mc-25fl that i picked up from the needle-dr for $225 (permanently on-sale fro its $450 list price?). this replaced a blue-point i used prewiously, & i tink it's outstanding for its price. the blue-point was nuttin' to sneeze at either, imho. in fact, the ortofon is so nice, i *still* haven't gotten 'round to tryin' the vandenhul-rebuilt lyra clavis that i picked up for a song, using my prewiously-described method for getting a cartridge better-n-ewe can afford! ;~) i've heard good tings about the the lyra, & i got it, gnuly re-built, for ~80% of retail...

regards, doug s.

oops, 80% of retail doesn't sound wery good, i meant 80% *off* retail! ;~)

Duddy,those Dead concerts really had an efffffect on you!

I auditioned a Project Wood table with this cartridge and it didn't sound "special" to me. I found an Ortofon cartridge that sounded better, not as thin through the upper bass.

careful with that Axe, I've got a BPS on a Linn Basik arm that's on a Rega 2, I'm thinking of trading for a K9, the BPS in this configuration, is too warm, lacking in detail and definition. Granted, it's probably the setup it was given, by the dealer, I'm too shacky to try and tweek alignment, VTA and tracking force, careful cause trying to use a force guage can snap the cantaliver and it's nude design can easily get caught doing a bunny hop across the felt mat, leaving you in a vacuume once you relize what's happened, Moving coils are sensitive to that sorta thing, now I'm looking forward to trying something differant, maybe a Rega arm? any and all suggestions excepted.