cartridge/stylus diminishing returns?

[tabarddn51]

Hi, You cannot get anything out 9loudspeakers) if it is not retrieved. The greatest investment & return of any vinyl system is the tone arm. But that is only half the story, because you need compatibility to the tonearm with the cartridge. This is were most beginners go wrong in believing they can throw any cart on a tone arm & get great results.
just before Christmas I had a customer buy one of my arms as his 2nd arm to allow him to add a mono cart to his system. His main arm cost $8,000 & his cart an unbelievable $20,000!! (so he made his dealer a very happy chappie). The arm I sold him cost him $1500 & the mono cart just over $2,000, yet he reported back to me that the mono rig sounded better that the main rig & he could not understand why. It was just a case of compatibility between the two units, Cart & Arm.
So you need a good cart, but it is no good to you unless you have a good arm and the two need to be compatible. However you do not need to spend an arm and a leg, I have just received back a fantastic sounding cart which I had re-tipped. The total cost was around $500, but it sounds better the my multi $1000 (however I did not pay that anywhere near the full price) cart I had on my arm . Why, well again the new refurbished cart may be more compatible with my arm that the expensive cart.
There are several arms around that are top end performance wise, but again do not cost an arm & a leg. However for some reason, most people cannot get there heads around using a separate arm or changing there arm. Unfortunately most arms that are sold mounted to T/T's are very mundane in performance.

Cheers

 

[audiophileto]

i've got an empire 2000Z cart now. when i first acquired it, NOS styli weren't too hard to find, but the well seems to have dried up. jico seems to be the best option at this point. but i've read that moving iron designs can deteriorate over time, and i'm also just kind of curious about making a change since the empire has been my main for several years. i'm looking at an ortofon 2M blue or possibly bronze if the extra money is worth it, or the nag mp200. i've had a bunch of grados in the past and i've enjoyed my 2000Z but i'm not opposed to playing the field... lol

Have you tried any of the jico replacements ?

 

[Thunderbox]

i've got an empire 2000Z cart now. when i first acquired it, NOS styli weren't too hard to find, but the well seems to have dried up. jico seems to be the best option at this point. but i've read that moving iron designs can deteriorate over time, and i'm also just kind of curious about making a change since the empire has been my main for several years. i'm looking at an ortofon 2M blue or possibly bronze if the extra money is worth it, or the nag mp200. i've had a bunch of grados in the past and i've enjoyed my 2000Z but i'm not opposed to playing the field... lol

You will be hard pressed to find a better cartridge than the 2000Z. I just sold 3 OEM NOS S2000Z styli. No OEM ones left. 2M Blue isn't even close, I have both.