Ortofon Om 3e or Shure M44-7

[Belo]

I have the opportunity to buy either one of them, I currently have an old M44-7 but I never listened to any LP played through an Ortofon.
What do you guys think?
I'll appreciate your opinions.

 

[dshoaf]

Aren't those DJ carts? If so, the first thing I'd be checking is the condition of the stylus and its shank.

I believe both can be upgraded with stylii for hi fi use but factor those costs into the purchase price. This doens't mean they cannot sound good in a home stereo system - just be highly suspect of their condition.

Cheers,

David

 

[Montycat]

You have the M44? Or you have the option to buy one?

If you have it already, buy the Ortofon to test and compare it to the Shure in your system with your ears. We can't do that for you.

 

[malden]

Aren't those DJ carts? If so, the first thing I'd be checking is the condition of the stylus and its shank.

I believe both can be upgraded with stylii for hi fi use but factor those costs into the purchase price. This doens't mean they cannot sound good in a home stereo system - just be highly suspect of their condition.

Cheers,

David

Yes, the M44-7 can be upgraded with a N44E, N44G or N55E stylus. All are available from JICO...

https://www.jico-stylus.com/index.php?cPath=18&sort=2a&page=3

 

[ETI_5000]

Aren't those DJ carts?

Well, it may be classified as a 'DJ' cartridge now, but the M44-7 first saw the light of day in 1964 as a hi-fi cartridge. Shure's just resurrected an old hi-fi design and re-labelled it as a DJ model.

 

[ETI_5000]

I’d go for the Ortofon – it should be a better-sounding cartridge for the following reasons.

According to Shure, the M44E (the elliptical stylus version) had an equivalent moving mass for its stylus of 1.4mg, and given that the 0.7mil conical tip on the M44-7 will weigh marginally more than the 0.4 x 0.7mil tip that was on the M44E, it’s probably slightly heavier than that. Ortofon give the equivalent mass of the 3E as 0.5mg, which is quite a bit lighter. It’s also a much thinner tip.

So the advantages of the Ortofon OM 3E over the Shure M44-7 include:

• Lighter stylus moving mass (0.5mg versus 1.4mg or more)
• Thinner stylus tip (0.3 mil versus 0.7 mil, or 8 µm versus 18 µm)
• It’s a much newer design cartridge – early-1980’s versus early 60’s, so approximately 20 years newer. Cartridge fidelity had got better over that period, due to all the research into cartridges.
  
• A much wider range of stylus tips can be used on the Ortofon OM body, all the way up to a nude Fine Line (stylus 30) or nude Fritz Gyger 70 (stylus 40), and there are also a range of heavier-tracking conicals, including the stylus D25M. Some (possibly all) of Ortofon’s DJ styli should also work, if even heavier tracking and stylus strength is required. By contrast, the best stylus for the Shure M44 is an aftermarket bonded 0.2 x 0.7mil N55E stylus (or possibly a 0.3 x 0.7mil tip, given that few if any Japanese stylus manufacturers supply 0.2 x 0.7mil tips - they are probably only available from Swiss manufacturers)
  
• The cartridge mass is less – OM 5E 5g or 2.5g (weight removed from body) versus 6.7g. Lower mass means better tracking.
• The OM body’s inductance is lower – 450mH versus 720mH. That should make the Ortofon more resistant to changes in load capacitance, which can alter the frequency response and sound of a MM (Shure) or MI (Ortofon) cartridge quite markedly.

 

[Belo]

Thank you guys for your input, it really has helped me.
I am going for the Ortofon, i already have the experience with Shure, i'm not going to use it for scratching or anything of the sort.