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Digitrac 280

DCH

DCH

Well-Known Member
My recently-inherited Luxman P-405 has on it a Digitrac 280 cartridge - P-mount with an adapter. I can't find much of any info on this cart... does anyone have any insights? Good/bad/high-compliance/medium-compliance?

I know it's apparently somewhat synonymous with the Ortofon OM series... and as a P-mount with a 1/2 inch adapter it does run perilously low when the arm swings out over the record, but doesn't hit it.

Sounds nice. Sounds quite nice. But I've got a handful of carts lying around and am not sure what to go with (others are a AT95E and a Shure M91ED with low-mileage original Super-Track stylus).
 
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Indeed, I too understand the Digitrac cartridges to be synonymous with Ortofon. I've heard of the Digitrac 200 and 300, and believe them to be decent (perhaps equivalent to the OM20 and OM30). If the 280 is a p-mount then it should be high-compliance, tracking at 1.25g.

The Luxman turntable looks like it may well have a low-mass arm, so the Digitrac should be a good match. However, the AT95E wouldn't, as a lowish-compliance cartridge. The M91ED is high-compliance and would be a much better candidate if you want to replace the Digitrac. And since you may not know the number of hours on the 280 stylus, the M91 may be a safer bet.

It's possible that the OM styli will fit the Digitrac cartridge. This Planstiehl aftermarket stylus looks like an OM-type and they claim it fits the 280E: https://pfanstiehl.turntableguide.biz/turntable-needle-for-digitrac-100-100e-190.html
 
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Search "Quest 20" for more info on Digitrac, all that I have seen are interchangeable with the OM series.
 
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Nice, it looks like there's options if I decide to upgrade/replace the stylus on this. I wonder if a Ortofon Stylus 40 or the LPgear Shibata version would fit this.
 
Well, the 280 had a bad right channel. But the Shure went in nice and sounds good. Good thing I had that sitting around.
 
DCH said:
Well, the 280 had a bad right channel. But the Shure went in nice and sounds good. Good thing I had that sitting around.
Click to expand...
Digitrac carts known to have issues but the stylus will fit Ortofon OM cart. Just have to clip off a little tab. Very easy.
 
About half the Digitrac carts we bought had a bad channel but it was easy to pop the stylus on a OM5 body and make a OM20.
 
DCH said:
My recently-inherited Luxman P-405 has on it a Digitrac 280 cartridge - P-mount with an adapter. I can't find much of any info on this cart... does anyone have any insights? Good/bad/high-compliance/medium-compliance?

I know it's apparently somewhat synonymous with the Ortofon OM series... and as a P-mount with a 1/2 inch adapter it does run perilously low when the arm swings out over the record, but doesn't hit it.

Sounds nice. Sounds quite nice. But I've got a handful of carts lying around and am not sure what to go with (others are a AT95E and a Shure M91ED with low-mileage original Super-Track stylus).
Click to expand...

I had a 380NE, which is the step up from yours. Gave it away. Tried 3 different carts and none of them would work right. When I DID get to work OK the sound was to 'dry' for my tastes. Someone mentioned to me you can hack away at the style to get it fit the OM bodies, but I wasn't going that far mainly because I wasn't a fan of the sound anyway.
 
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