Willing to be proved wrong.


After reading so many threads and so many arguments, I'm willing to concede that maybe I'm wrong. My turntable, an old Garrard DD75 has been sitting in the basement since I got my first cd player. I've also got a lot of vinyl stuck away. I've had chances to sell it, but somehow never could. My question, is, what do I need to do to get this TT going again. It still has a Stanton 681EEE cartridge, and according to the strobe, still runs true. I've put a lot of money into this hobby in the last year, so if you're going to tell me to buy an expensive new TT, forget it. I'm willing to get a new cartridge, but have no idea what to get now a days. It used to be Shure, Ortofon, Empire. I'll also need a pre-pre amp of some kind, but have read threads about a battery powered one from Rat Shack. I would appreciate any help.
elmuncy
Your old Stanton cartridge, while good in its day, is probably due for replacement since it is very likely that the rubber components in the cantilever suspension are deteriorated due to age. It's possible that you can find someone that can rebuilt the 681EEE, but I doubt it makes much sense financially.

The tonearm on your Garrard turntable is not a very sophisticated model, so it does not make much sense to buy a top-end cartridge for it. Something like your Stanton should be fine, as would a Shure M95ED, or one of the less expensive Grados.

I think you'd be best advised to contact either Jerry Raskin's Needle Doctor, or Garage-a-Records (which is often cheaper than the Needle Doctor), to get their suggestions on a good moderately-priced cartridge that will work well with your TT/tonearm setup. Here are the Web links:
1. Needle Doctor: http://www.needledoctor.com/
2. Garage-a-Records: http://www.garage-a-records.com/
I agree with Sdcampell, and since you're not going to spend anything on a new TT now - and since your TT won't justify a pricey cart - if I were you, I would probably take this cost-savings as an opportunity to not totally cheap out on the phono preamp while you're having to get one, just in case you get hooked and want to go for a better TT/cart later on (and somehow, I doubt this will take very long - but if you don't get hooked, who's gonna want to buy a used RS unit?). If you get one of the inexpensive Grado Prestige carts, you might look into their own battery-powered phonostage (presumably optimized for Grado MI carts, but should also work well with Shure's high-output MM's), which is not terrribly expensive, and should still do a good job for you if you move up to one of their wood-bodied models in the future. But if you decide not to go the battery route, Mikey Fremer seemed to like the Gram Amp the best of the inexpensive phonostages he's rated recently.
You'd be surprised how good a Stanton 520 SK cartridge will sound. For less than $40, it comes with an extra stylus. You can find them at a Guitar World store, or check around online. They're readily available and well worth the price for performance.
While I haven't hear one, the RS battery phono-preamp is highly spoken of on several forums. For less then $25.00 your not out a lot if it is not your cup of tea.

I don't think you can go wrong for the price with a lower cost Grado cartridge.
This is not an endorsement, but to find/buy the "Little Rat" RS phono preamp you need to go to radioshack.com. You can search for "phono preamp" or I believe the catalog number is 970-1018. For $25, it isnt bad - I don't know of anything better for the price, except, maybe, the phono section of any old receiver or integrated amp that you might find in your garage, or your neighbor's garage, or a local thrift store.

The lower priced Stanton or an inexpensive Grado are good recommendations. Your Stanton may have been a little too compliant for your tonearm and the less expensive cartridges may be better matches. I think one reason a lot of people jumped on the cd bandwagon early on (before cd players sounded good, which I think they do now), is that they were trying to use the wrong cartridges for their tonearms, and especially over-hyped low mass high compliance cartridges with inexpensive medium to high mass tonearms. They then compounded the problem by trying to track them at the lowest ratings for their cartridges and ended up damaging their records. Stay with an inexpensive cartridge and, unless you have a test record and an oscilliscope, set the tracking weight at the maximum recommended for the cartridge.