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First cartridges for Denon DP-62L?

Cobra 1 1

Cobra 1 1

New Member
First timer to Audiokarma. Just recently unboxed my Denon DP-62L TT I bought when I was leaving the army 33 years ago. Now I need to buy a cartridge and not sure what I want. Never knew there were so many choices! TT came with a straight and S arms so I will buy two carts to experiment what style suits me. My budget is $200 for the pair. I want the two to represent each end of the vinyl audio spectrum. Maybe a "warm" and a "bright" cartridge? I have mostly 70's and 80's classic rock, new wave, and lots of classical records dating back to the 50's. Any advice is much appreciated!
 
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Thank you for the suggestion. In trying to get into my budget, would a 2m red (brighter?) or a Nagoaka mp 100 (warmer?) represent the two you suggest? Do you believe both models would benefit mounting on the S arm rather than the straight? Whatever I buy I will learn how to properly mount and adjust for optimum performance.
 
The 2M Red is just a bonded elliptical on a decent motor...I suspect you can do better. The AT-VM95EN offers a nude elliptical for ~ $120....should be fairly neutral.

A combo that I love in the $100 price range is the AT-3600L (~ $20) with the LP Gear ATN3600DLXVL Vivid Line stylus (~$80). The Vivid Line is a line contact stylus that takes the 3600 just about as far as it can go. Really nice balance and sound stage for this price range. It also leaves you with a good stock conical stylus as a back up, change of pace, or for beater records.
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I suppose I could be upgrading in the future (spend more $) but I want to learn what sound I like from a cartridge first. This will be a reintroduction for me to vinyl and I don't have any biases or opinions whatsoever. I like the idea of getting a AT-3600L. Might be suitable to play some of my 50's record, many of which are mono. For my 70's/80's vinyl I could go with the neutral cartridge you recommend. I did take very good care of my records, playing them only once to recording on tape. I need to check out LP Gear website... I've heard it mentioned before (lots of HW tech data for comparing?).

I have also read references to the DP-62L and needing to have it recapped... After 33 years in a box never used, would I be risking damage not opening it up for a cap visual check?
 
The AT3600L is an excellent suggestion for a warm-ish cartridge. And don't be put off my its low price, as this is a very enjoyable cartridge that is well worth experiencing. The Grado Prestige cartridges are generally regarded as warm (although the latest '3' edition is supposed to be a bit more open) - so, a Prestige Black3 or Blue3 may be good options. If you're interested in a vintage cartridge, an old Shure is usually a good warm option, such as the M75 or M91.

The Ortofon 2M Red will certainly bring you a lot more brightness, as well as detail along with it. Many people don't like it but I have found it to have an open and exciting sound. There is also the equivalent from Ortofon's OM range, the Super-OM10, which can sound very nice.

In the middle ground, the AT-VM95E is fairly neutral and is now the 'go to' budget cartridge for medium-mass and high-mass arms.

Normally, you would have consider the matching between the stylus compliance and the effective mass of the arm, but I believe that the arm on your turntable has a damping mechanism which means that this isn't such a critical issue.
 
why buy several inexpensive cartridges, put the money toward one nice one, then "you will" hear what your vinyl is capable of.

here you go, sign up for an Amazon card and get this for $249

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now this is a low output moving coil, so if your amplifier/phono stage doesn't support one then a step up transformer or moving coil phono stage would be required. Hey, here's an idea, use the $150 saved on the cartridge, you'll be glad you did, really.
 
I agree that a pretty nice cartridge could be had for $200, but it can be fun to play around with a few budget cartridges, especially while deciding on the kind of sound you like. Once you've made your choice, it's possible to sell the unwanted cartridges and buy an upgraded stylus for the one you're keeping.
 
You can use any cartridge on that table. A Shure M97, Shure M91ED (with proper loading), ADC XLM, Pickering XSV3000 and a Denon 110, 103 sound very good on that table. With the exception of the Denon cartridges, I use a Vivid Line stylus in all of mine.
 
Nothing to be gained buying new cartridges vs vintage cartridges. New carts can actually be more expensive and more limiting on your $200 budget.

For your limited budget, get 2 nice vintage carts and 2 nice aftermarket styli.

ADC carts are widely available as are some good styli for the straight arm. Also Pickering and Stanton, or Empire cartridges for either arm.

Don’t limit yourself to Denon carts just because it’s a Denon table.

You can use virtually ANY cartridge on that table, with its 2 arms and its self-adjusting features.
 
I think budget carts on a really nice table are a waste of time and money...just like when people buy cheap entry TT’s and think they can start adding mods to make them better...

my experience comes from my share of audio rabbit holes that I’ve gone down.....

it’s better to save your money and get something nicer....the 2 carts that I mentioned earlier are right in line with the quality of that table...
 
Thanks for all the suggestions! I ordered the following before seeing that sweet deal found by Grenadeslio for the Denon DL-301MK2. I went to Amazon and it seems I was too late to get it at that $250 net price. So what I expect to get is a neutral, fairly decent cartridge in the AT-VM95E. I will also have the Gemini HDCN-15 which I learned is equipped with AT-3600L. After optimally adjusting both carts in their head shells, I should be able to swap them easily on my S arm and learn how noticeable differences in their sound are. The cart alignment/tone arm adjustment HW I ordered seemed decent and with lots of Youtube help I'm confident I'll be ok on setting up the carts. This coming weekend I will use it to play some my more pristine vinyl records and hear them again after 33 years! From that point on, who knows... If the bug really bites, I may soon want an upgrade to something like that DL-301MK2!
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That lot should give you a bit of fun. You can always upgrade the stylus of either cartridge at a later date, if you wish, although for the AT3600L I think the only worthwhile upgrade might be an aftermarket stylus with an exotic profile such as hyper-elliptical or shibata (which probably need a reduced tracking force). By the way, I would use a tracking force of 3g for the AT3600L, but you can experiment.

Don't forget to come back to give your impressions.
 
Seconded for this. They were literally made for each other and it most certainly shows. This marriage has been my choice since I bought it in a garage sale in 1999 for $200. Since, I've gotten the '62-L recapped and bought 5 '301-mkii carts (so far). It's under the radar and the carts are obviously new old stock, so there's that...

But, it's a match made in heaven.

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Not sure this was brought up but if you have two arms, one a S arm and the other a straight arm, the straight arm is for high compliance carts where the S tone arm is for carts with medium compliance.

So buying two carts to play is not a problem but make sure your buying the correct cart for the specific application. The two carts you bought should be fine for the S arm, but might not be optimal for your straight arm.

The Denon DL301 in the post above would have been a good cart for your table and vinyl benefits with good cart/stylus if you really want to enjoy the better attributes that vinyl can provide. The two carts you purchased will produce music, and you might be happy with the results, but one good cart that is well matched to your tonearm would be a much better way to go then having two budget carts just so you can swap them.

One other thing the DL 301 is a moving coil cart, so you would need to spend more money as well on a phono amp or a SUT to boast the low signal that it produces. All thinks one needs to keep in mind.
 
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Cobra 1 1 said:
First timer to Audiokarma. Just recently unboxed my Denon DP-62L TT I bought when I was leaving the army 33 years ago. Now I need to buy a cartridge and not sure what I want. Never knew there were so many choices! TT came with a straight and S arms so I will buy two carts to experiment what style suits me. My budget is $200 for the pair. I want the two to represent each end of the vinyl audio spectrum. Maybe a "warm" and a "bright" cartridge? I have mostly 70's and 80's classic rock, new wave, and lots of classical records dating back to the 50's. Any advice is much appreciated!
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Since it has the servo tracer arm, compliance is a bit of a non issue.

You might also want to get it recapped by a good tech.
 
So, if you boxed up your Denon 33 years ago, what cartridge(s) did you originally have on it?

Typically, the two arms are to fit carts you already have, as opposed to buying 2 carts because you have 2 arms. For instance, using the straight arm for a high compliance cart like a V15V or ADC XLM MKIII. And then switching to the “S” arm for a low compliance cart like an older M44.

I would just get 1 cart that you might like, initially.

On my Denon DP45F and 52F, I use both low and high compliance carts, without issues. Non-swappable arms. So I’ve never fully understood Denon’s thinking in supplying 2 arms to start with.
 
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