Need New Cartridge Recommendation

A Stanton 881S that is dialed in and properly loaded will mop the floor with the Shure. The Stanton can be found for well under $200 brand new, making it the best buy in moving magnet cartridges on the market.

I will say that the newer Shure is a big step forward in comparison to their older ( and still highly respected and reviewed ) cartridges. If anyone is to buy a Shure cartridge and like it, i would HIGHLY suggest buying at least one replacement styli RIGHT AWAY. Shure has discontinued models in the past and stopped supplying replacement styli at the same time. Nothing like buying a product and then having NO factory support whatsoever. If you don't believe this, talk to the people that bought V15 Type IV's. Sean
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A nice cartridge in ypur price range would be the Sumiko blue point special, around 2.5mv output and lists for $295 new but is usually discounted to the $225 range.

I might have to try one of those too. I only have experience with the old V15 typeIII. I wasn't thrilled with the sound of those. I couldn't afford to repalace my $800 moving coil with anything comperable(remodeling the money pit)so I got a Grado Platnum(VPI version). Sound is nice but I can't get it to track it's way out of a wet paper bag! Any suggestions. I had to crank up the tracking force way beyond what they reccomend(over 2 grams)and any more antiskate sucks the life out of the thing. Any one out there tried a Clearaudio MM?

Maxgain and Carleton, Franks's suggestin of the Sumiko BPS is good, but I would actually recommend the non-special non-nude Blue Point, cheaper and tracks real well in a wide variety of arms. I think it's a good match for the Project and Maxgain - you don't say what arm you use.

I think the Blue Point is very nicely balanced sonically. Ive been listening to old records lately and they sound better than I remember them sounding with my old cartridges from years ago- Talisman, Dynavector 10x4, AKGP8ES, various Graces. I always thought the AKG was the best. Of course, my electronics and speakers are way better now.

W/re the Blue Point Special - I bought that originally but it had a bad channel imbalance, and it made me nervous thinking about damaging it, so I exchanged it for the Blue Point.

I have owned a Blue Point before. It would not be good in this application, as good trackability is very important for extracting relatively decent bass out of so-so pop music pressings.

I had to rig my Blue Point with an old Disctracker headshell damping device (made by Discwasher)I had in my toolbox. Otherwise bass response was really mediocre. Its musicality, however, was a totally different story...