Cannot decide on a cartridge

Raegas

New Member
I've currently got $150 to spend on a new cartridge and won't be able to afford to spend more for a couple months and don't want to wait.

I cannot find any info about the current cartridge I have right now as the only thing labeled on it is "dj." It sounds okay but the sibilance on vocal-heavy records is enough to make me want to pull my hair out. There is also a LOT of surface noise on it.

I want to replace it with something that will handle highs a bit better and with the least sibilance possible. I've been doing a lot of research and people are typically recommending the Shure M97xE or the AT95e, but even those seem to have their issues. I know that unless I spend something like 300, that's going to be the case, but what would you guys say would be a good beginning cartridge that fits my criteria?

I have a Yamaha P500 if that helps.
 
I really liked my Nagoakoa mp110 as a budget moving magnet cartridge. Very smooth on all kinds of music with a good level of detail.

Taming sibilance for me has always been best resolved by fine tuning cartridge alignment (assuming the stylus isn't worn). Whatever choice you make, do some reading about alignment if you haven't done it a lot before.
 
I want to replace it with something that will handle highs a bit better and with the least sibilance possible. I've been doing a lot of research and people are typically recommending the Shure M97xE or the AT95e, but even those seem to have their issues. I know that unless I spend something like 300, that's going to be the case, but what would you guys say would be a good beginning cartridge that fits my criteria?

I have a Yamaha P500 if that helps.

The Baerwald cartridge alignment protractor and the use of finer stylus combination can in certain circumstance reduce the symptoms of sibilance.
https://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge-alignment-protractors.shtml

The Vessel A3SE has what the manufacturer labeled as "Super elliptical " probably the same as line contact or hyper elliptical stylus.

That is within your price range, you may want to look into it. :idea:
https://www.lpgear.com/product/THEVESSELA3SE.html
 
Shure has discontinued the m97xE and those left in the system well up the climb to stupid.

The P500 is a fairly low-mass tonearm I think. How about a Audio Technica VM520EB or a Ortofon 2MRed or OM10 or a Grado Black (if no reported hum on your table)?
 
Just a thought. You can buy a vintage cartridge (Shure, Stanton, Pickering etc.) and order a new stylus from Jico, EVG etc.

Some of those cartridges are really good sounding.

I'll second this. A Pickering XV15 or Stanton 680 / 681 with a Jico shibata stylus is killer value for money. Very hard to beat at any price point till you jump to low output moving coils.

An Empire 2000 E/III with a Jico shibata or LPGear Vividline (hyper elliptical) is also excellent and hard to beat for the price.

I'm not a fan of Shure though admittedly I've only ever had medium and high mass tonearms. The better Shires are meant to like a light weight arm.
 
I'm not a fan of Shure though admittedly I've only ever had medium and high mass tonearms. The better Shires are meant to like a light weight arm.

You can still order a lower compliance (EJ) stylus and use it with medium mass tonearms.
Although you are then limited to E/HE styluses.
 
You can still order a lower compliance (EJ) stylus and use it with medium mass tonearms.
Although you are then limited to E/HE styluses.

True, though I've sort of settled on shibata as my base level stylus.... HE just doesn't have the detail I expect, and elliptical is one step up from conical....
 
I really liked my Nagoakoa mp110 as a budget moving magnet cartridge. Very smooth on all kinds of music with a good level of detail.

Taming sibilance for me has always been best resolved by fine tuning cartridge alignment (assuming the stylus isn't worn). Whatever choice you make, do some reading about alignment if you haven't done it a lot before.

I've found that adjusting anti skate can also have an influence on sibilance. I picked up a Grado Green 2 a few months back, great cartridge for the money. Right now I'm infatuated with my ADC XLM II with an EVG 4108-DET stylus. It's natural open sound is very addictive.
 
Please post a picture of your current cartridge. Odds are it is completely wrong for the turntable. Surface noise could be due to dirty and/or worn records as well as a worn out stylus. Just installing a new cartridge may not fix the problem.

Also, one of my turntables is the Yamaha P-700 which uses the same tonearm and headshell as the P-500. The mass of the arm is 11g IIRC.

I think the Nagaoka may be a little stiff on the compliance side for this arm, but it might work. I would probably skip it anyway for other reasons.

I would also skip the 2M Red, not only because I think it's a horrible sounding cartridge but because all the extra plastic on the body is going to make things a tight fit on the proprietary Yamaha headshell. I've heard some reports that it might not even work. If you want Ortofon, you'd be better off with something from the OM series, like an OM10 or OM20.

I have used the Vessel A3SE on the Yamaha and it worked pretty well. Not my favorite cart but a very decent one for the money.

Audio Technica cartridges work well on the arm - I use an old Signet on mine with new AT styli - the old Signet body is very similar to the current VM series - just aluminum rather than plastic on the outside. You might want to buy the VM series cartridge that fits your budget, then upgrade the stylus down the line when you're ready to do that.

I don't know what the rest of your system is, so if you could tell us that might help some folks make a more informed suggestion.
 
Before racing off and buying a whole new cart, I'd seriously look into aligning (properly) what you have now and invest in some cleaning supplies. You can run out and easily spend $500 or $1K on a new cart, but if it is not properly set up and your albums aren't cleaned, they will still sound like sh*t. Also look into exactly what cart you have--you may just have to spend a few bucks to replace or upgrade the stylus. Without proper set-up and clean source media, no amount of money is going to "fix" anything--it may even end up sounding worse. Check the "basics" first.
 
Geez, that looks pretty nice for $100!

But don't make too much of the "super elliptical" nomenclature. The tip looks bonded to me, first of all, but that shouldn't really matter too much since this is a relatively mid compliance cartridge so there's plenty of force being exerted by the groove walls to push that tip around.

Stylus tip radius: 7.6µm × 15.5µm

The Google Microns to Inches calculator translates the 7.6um x 15.5 um to 0.000299213 x 0.0006102362 roughly .0003 x .0006 inches to a short hand .3 x .6 mils.

I guess what elevates this otherwise bog standard (and cheap) bonded elliptical "super" is that the scanning edge is .6 instead of the usual .7 or less commonly .8 dimension. But the tracing edge is the very common .3 which definitely makes it not a line contact or hyperelliptical by commonly accepted, though certainly not officially codified as standard, terms.

I would also assume that it's a "faux" elliptical rather than a true ellipsoid, but this is all just splitting hairs. Fact is, "faux" bonded ellipticals can sound incredible on the right cartridge and this looks to be the type of cartridge on which a "faux" bonded elliptical would sing.

It is bonded and a pretty standard elliptical stylus as those go. As usual LP Gear gets hyperbolic with the marketing speak. The next level up in the series - LPG calls "vivid line" is nothing more than a nude .2 x .7 elliptical.
 
Please post a picture of your current cartridge. Odds are it is completely wrong for the turntable. Surface noise could be due to dirty and/or worn records as well as a worn out stylus. Just installing a new cartridge may not fix the problem.

Also, one of my turntables is the Yamaha P-700 which uses the same tonearm and headshell as the P-500. The mass of the arm is 11g IIRC.

I think the Nagaoka may be a little stiff on the compliance side for this arm, but it might work. I would probably skip it anyway for other reasons.

I would also skip the 2M Red, not only because I think it's a horrible sounding cartridge but because all the extra plastic on the body is going to make things a tight fit on the proprietary Yamaha headshell. I've heard some reports that it might not even work. If you want Ortofon, you'd be better off with something from the OM series, like an OM10 or OM20.

I have used the Vessel A3SE on the Yamaha and it worked pretty well. Not my favorite cart but a very decent one for the money.

Audio Technica cartridges work well on the arm - I use an old Signet on mine with new AT styli - the old Signet body is very similar to the current VM series - just aluminum rather than plastic on the outside. You might want to buy the VM series cartridge that fits your budget, then upgrade the stylus down the line when you're ready to do that.

I don't know what the rest of your system is, so if you could tell us that might help some folks make a more informed suggestion.

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This is the cartridge. Someone told me it's most likely a Stanton with a DJ stylus, but the guy who sold it to me told me it was a "quality Shure." As for the rest of my system, I have an old Sony STR-DE635 receiver (which sounds amazing with my other components) that I bought for relatively cheap. I'm on a low-income so I can only typically afford low-end and used stuff most of the time unless I want to use up all my spending money, so I really can't afford to upgrade my receiver or my speakers. My speakers are Yamaha NS-6490s, which again, sound fantastic to my ears when playing any other medium, even cassettes. I honestly don't experience any hiss or other issues with sound, and if an album doesn't have vocals, I can hear absolutely nothing wrong with playback, The only issue is with vocals since there is too much sibilance. All my records are also brand new and I clean them and the stylus almost daily, if I'm going to be playing music.

Ultimately I just want a warm-sounding cartridge with the least sibilance. I can deal with surface noise but sibilance makes listening to music a chore instead of a good time.
 
@Raegas, that doesn't look like any type of Shure to me, it looks like some kind of Stanton DJ cart. I'm not that familiar with this cart, so hopefully someone will chime in as to whether it's worth getting a better stylus for that cart or just getting something else entirely.

I understand being on a budget, which is why I'd recommend focusing on set up and making sure your records are clean like @savatage1973 said.
 
Geez, that looks pretty nice for $100!

But don't make too much of the "super elliptical" nomenclature. The tip looks bonded to me, first of all, but that shouldn't really matter too much since this is a relatively mid compliance cartridge so there's plenty of force being exerted by the groove walls to push that tip around.

Stylus tip radius: 7.6µm × 15.5µm

The Google Microns to Inches calculator translates the 7.6um x 15.5 um to 0.000299213 x 0.0006102362 roughly .0003 x .0006 inches to a short hand .3 x .6 mils.

I guess what elevates this otherwise bog standard (and cheap) bonded elliptical "super" is that the scanning edge is .6 instead of the usual .7 or less commonly .8 dimension. But the tracing edge is the very common .3 which definitely makes it not a line contact or hyperelliptical by commonly accepted, though certainly not officially codified as standard, terms.

I would also assume that it's a "faux" elliptical rather than a true ellipsoid, but this is all just splitting hairs. Fact is, "faux" bonded ellipticals can sound incredible on the right cartridge and this looks to be the type of cartridge on which a "faux" bonded elliptical would sing.

Thank you for the very detail explanation and precise um conversion! :thumbsup:

If it passes the needlemeister's elimination round, it should be okay!
 
If it were me, and I was on a tight budget, I'd start with the stylus @needlestein recommended and a Spin Clean. If you have an older record that was played a lot it may have damaged inner grooves - nothing to be done there. Likewise, some records are cut aggressively and will not track without IGD at the inner grooves without an advanced stylus shape (beyond OP's budget).
 
Assuming the cartridge is already aligned properly and the cantilevers have the same length, you wouldn't even have to realign it.

Aligning a cartridge on this turntable is pretty easy @Raegas. Originally it came with a little overhang gauge to set a 17mm overhang. If you don't have or can't get one, no worries. You can make an arc protractor with close to 17mm overhang using the free Conrad Hoffman program (Google it). If you're having trouble doing that, PM me with your email and I'll send you one. I may have one already done on PDF because I have the P-700.
 
IME--sibilance is almost always an alignment issue. Worn out or not well cared for records sound just like that--worn out or abused. Likewise, a worn out stylus sounds like a worn out stylus. Got to also remember that DJ styli are designed for higher tracking forces than an audiophile stylus--the cart body may be the same, but the stylus suspension is not.
 
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