Need New Cartridge Recommendation

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...

Carleton, I'm sorry, your original post said you have a low output mc phono preamp. In that case, the best buy would be the AT OC9, $199 from Jerry Raskin or MusicDirect.

BTW, I have no problems with trackability with the Blue Point. Nor did Tony Cordesman, as I recall, mention any such problem when he reviewed it for TAS along with a bunch of other cartridges. Called it a best buy then, and it's been improved since. Maybe not a good match for your arm.

I'd have to agree with Sean's comments above about the Stanton vs. the Shure. Always liked the Stantons better in the old days. I had the impression that the Shure was a high compliance cartridge needing a low mass arm and the Sumiko tables have medium mass arms best suited to medium compliance cartridges.

Has anyone used the AT 440ML, $99 from AA and Jerry Raskin? Robert Greene and some other at TAS raved about the earlier AT170ML, discontinued, but AT says that the 440 is the same except for lacking the boron cantilever of the 170. If the 440 is even acceptable, at $99, that's a great buy. But mm and high output like the other cartriges mentioned above.

Paul

Or, OTH, maybe Carleton was saying the Adcom, which I think does not accomodate low output mc cartridges, can't handle a lo mc because he's trying to use a lo cartridge in a phono section designed for high output. I dont know the Denon.

I meant maybe the BP wasnt a good match for Psychic's arm. I think it would be a g>MyPmatch for the Project.

Thanks to everyone for their recommendations and feedback.There's alot of good deals out there and that makes it hard to choose.I can say for shure I'm glad I got into vinyl..

"HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL"