Budget cartridge recommendations

smitkoku

smitkoku

Active Member
I am giving a close friend my Dual 1257 turntable. I have the original ulm50 cart that came with it, but the arm was re-wired for 1/2" carts and does not have the p-mount plug. I've already given him a Sansui au/tu 7900 combo and built him a sweet pair of Tony Gee's Tempo speaker design (almost identical to audio physik Tempo 2's). Anyway, the bottom line is that I bought an audio technica 440mla for the Dual, as the cart it came with was shot. Then, I scored a Pioneer PL-570 tt that came with a Shure V15 type 3 cart, which I bought and installed a new Ed Saunders stylus in. I have the Shure mounted, but I want to keep the AT as a backup cart. I really wanted to just give him this, as it was sitting around not being used, and the Sansui has a pretty nice phono stage (actually, the whole preamp section is quite impressive!). BUT, I don't plan on giving him my $175 cart with it. I'm looking for some recommendations for some carts, under $50, that will sound nice with this table. If I could figure out how to mount the original Dual/Ortofon ulm cart, I would just do that. But I started a thread about that a couple weeks ago and didn't get any replies. So, this is my next option.

HELP PLEASE!!!!!:scratch2:
 
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PS, I gave him the stereo as a wedding gift, and went WAY over budget on that already (like to the tune of about $2200!). So, I'm not trying to cheap out, but I really can't drop a bunch of money into a cart. And I don't like giving a gift that requires the recipient to have to spend money on to get it to work.
 
I would let him pick out and buy his own cartridge. The turntable by itself is a very nice gift. I would not be disappointed is a friend gave me a turntable without a cartridge. I would be delighted if someone gave me a nice turntable. Plus he might want a better cart than what you can get for $50. Then you have just wasted that money. I know if you gave me that table I would immediately take the $50 cart off and replace it with a $100 to $200 cartridge.
 
capt.chaos said:
I would let him pick out and buy his own cartridge. The turntable by itself is a very nice gift. I would not be disappointed is a friend gave me a turntable without a cartridge. I would be delighted if someone gave me a nice turntable. Plus he might want a better cart than what you can get for $50. Then you have just wasted that money. I know if you gave me that table I would immediately take the $50 cart off and replace it with a $100 to $200 cartridge.
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Good point, since he is a very good friend lend him one.

He could decide on what he wants as the permanent cartridge of his own choice. :music:
 
For me, whether to put my friend in a position to choose his own cartridge would depend on whether I thought he had the knowledge or desire to make that decision. If they do, they probably already have a turntable.
 
+1 for the Ortofon OM5E. You could then set it up properly for him, and he'll have a good plug-and-play setup courtesy of your expertise. Later, when he needs to replace the stylus, you could then discuss cart upgrades.
 
You can get a Sanyo MG-29E on that auction site for under $20.00. This is the same cartridge as the elliptical "Red Ed" for $30.00 or the "Goldring Elektra" for $100.00.

I bought one for kicks and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with it. It sounds a lot like the Audio Technica AT95E. IMO, it actually sounds a bit more open and transparent due to it's slightly smaller stylus profile, but I think the AT95E would be better with one of the upgrade styli available for it. It's a very "musical" sounding cartridge and I could definitely live with it if I didn't have better.
 
Bob_in_OKC said:
For me, whether to put my friend in a position to choose his own cartridge would depend on whether I thought he had the knowledge or desire to make that decision. If they do, they probably already have a turntable.
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This would be his entry into quality vinyl playback (vs the record players we had when we were head-banging in high school!), so he does not, yet, have the knowledge. He does have the desire, but he is just recently married, bought a house, and now they are pregnant, so saying "here's a nice turntable, but you are going to have to drop some dough on a decent cart", I just don't feel comfortable with that.
 
Balifly said:
Good point, since he is a very good friend lend him one.

He could decide on what he wants as the permanent cartridge of his own choice. :music:
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Balifly, I think you hit it on the head. I'll lend him the AT440 MLA that is my current backup, and get it set up right for him. Maybe someone will give him a nice cart for Christmas!!

Thanks for the input everyone.:thmbsp:
 
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