Norm, first of all Congrats on the Linn it's a great table with a lot of soul. Properly set up it's very hard to beat the sound it can produce. I've owned one, and had many a enjoyable evening listening to this better 90% of all the cd players out there! As for the question of Cartridges...The best choice is really dependent on the rest of the system in use. The phono stage, what are the gain options, and most importantly your personal tastes in sound and music. From a synergy point of view, it's probably best to stay with the Linn cartridge until you can experiment with the different flavors of colour, and sound. (bright,soft,detailed,etc...) If your looking to get the table set up correctly?(KEY) a lot of information is available on the web, or as a suggestion... Brooks Berdan LTD. in Monrovia, Ca. (also, on the web) Brooks, is the quintessential authority on Linn tables for the past 30yrs, and will be glad to offer some valuable guiadance . If, you choose to go with the table your talking about the price seems to be correct, and you can always build from that foundation, and sell off the current arm . Some good combos might include a Linn "Ekos" arm, along with a Shelter 501, or Ortophon Kontrapunkt cartridge. Typically available on AGon used for around $600-800 for the arm, and $250-400 ish for the cartridge. This will keep the total investment under $2K, and will offer mega buck performance on a budget price. Hope this helps, and take the plunge you'll never look back. Cheers ;^)
