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Help Me Pick a Cartridge

Nucities

Nucities

Active Member
Sony PS-X60 Turntable (with original toner and head shell)
Schitit Mani Phono Preamp
Sony TA-A1ES Amp
KEF 103.2 Speakers

My everyday cartridge is the Nagaoka MP 110. I love it. Sounds amazing for the price and works well for the vast majority of my collection. Where it falls a bit flat to my ears is on Jazz or piano heavy stuff. It smooths stuff out a bit and you lose some detail. I have an Ortofon 2M Red and to be honest I don't like that cart at all. It does provide some more detail but its harsh to my ears and doesn't have the mid range. Base is lost almost entirey.

So any recommendations for a new cart? Im looking specifically for something that would really work nicely with jazz, piano and vocals. Good clarity without fatigue. I can spend 200-350 ish.
 
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I would get the MP-200 stylus for your MP-110, the Nagaoka stylus are all interchangeable. The MP-200 stylus cantilever is made of Boron, very thin but strong! I have the MP-200 cartridge and it's wonderful on every music genre specially Jazz! The MP-200 stylus is a big step up from your MP-110 stylus.
 
The most cost effective option is simply to upgrade the stylus from 2M Red to the Blue. It's enough better than the Red as to be a completely different cartridge. It's a very good all-around stylus profile.
If you shop around, a 2M Bronze can be had for not much more than your $350 limit. I have all three. The Red never gets any table time.....
 
justjed2 said:
The most cost effective option is simply to upgrade the stylus from 2M Red to the Blue. It's enough better than the Red as to be a completely different cartridge. It's a very good all-around stylus profile.
If you shop around, a 2M Bronze can be had for not much more than your $350 limit. I have all three. The Red never gets any table time.....
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Prefer the MP-200 over the Bronze. Don't care for the 2M sound, too bright for my taste.
 
It's kind of system dependent, I think. The Bronze has plenty of bass, the biggest complaint I've heard. I've never found it, or the Blue, to be overly bright, this on a Japanese S-arm. In my system, brightness is controlled by a couple of 12AX7s in my preamp.
However, even through the SS phono stage of a restomodded Kenwood Basic C2 pre, I perceive no undue brightness. The Red is almost completely unlistenable to me. Too brash, and too much surface noise. To my ears, the Red seems slow, and smears some of the detail. The Blue corrects these tendencies nicely.

But the Nagaoka upgrade seems to have gotten the nod. Probably the best choice, overall. Let us know how it goes....
 
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Nucities said:
Sony PS-X60 Turntable (with original toner and head shell)
Schitit Mani Phono Preamp
Sony TA-A1ES Amp
KEF 103.2 Speakers

My everyday cartridge is the Nagaoka MP 110. I love it. Sounds amazing for the price and works well for the vast majority of my collection. Where it falls a bit flat to my ears is on Jazz or piano heavy stuff. It smooths stuff out a bit and you lose some detail. I have an Ortofon 2M Red and to be honest I don't like that cart at all. It does provide some more detail but its harsh to my ears and doesn't have the mid range. Base is lost almost entirey.

So any recommendations for a new cart? Im looking specifically for something that would really work nicely with jazz, piano and vocals. Good clarity without fatigue. I can spend 200-350 ish.
Click to expand...

IMG_20221202_235017069.jpg

The Stereophile review of the cartridge

https://www.stereophile.com/content...el-6-classic-turntable-loricraft-prc6i-record
 
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Thanks for the feedback group, much appreciated. If the JN-P200 can provide a bit more detail I'll be golden. Easy upgrade and yes I really do like the Nagaoka MP110, best value cartridge I've ever heard.
 
Nucities said:
Thanks for the feedback group, much appreciated. If the JN-P200 can provide a bit more detail I'll be golden. Easy upgrade and yes I really do like the Nagaoka MP110, best value cartridge I've ever heard.
Click to expand...

Same body with a lighter cantilever and lighter diamond should give it clearer detail with similar tonal balance. Worth a try for sure (IMHO).
 
Sellers based in Japan (whether on eBay or otherwise) are definitely the way to go for anything Nagaoka - the markup on them outside of Japan is pretty rough these days.

With the right timing, you may even be able to get an entire MP-200 cartrige around the top of your budget, which would even more of an upgrade than putting the JN-P200 on the MP-110 body. But the stylus alone will still offer some improvement (far superior cantilever and nude mounted diamond).
 
Nucities said:
Sony PS-X60 Turntable (with original toner and head shell)
Schitit Mani Phono Preamp
Sony TA-A1ES Amp
KEF 103.2 Speakers

My everyday cartridge is the Nagaoka MP 110. I love it. Sounds amazing for the price and works well for the vast majority of my collection. Where it falls a bit flat to my ears is on Jazz or piano heavy stuff. It smooths stuff out a bit and you lose some detail. I have an Ortofon 2M Red and to be honest I don't like that cart at all. It does provide some more detail but its harsh to my ears and doesn't have the mid range. Base is lost almost entirey.

So any recommendations for a new cart? Im looking specifically for something that would really work nicely with jazz, piano and vocals. Good clarity without fatigue. I can spend 200-350 ish.
Click to expand...
I have the same deck. The Denon103 mates beautifully with the PUA-7 arm on your Sony.
 
I have a Nagaoka mp110 and have never got on with it, to me it sounds significantly suppressed, I also have the 2M red and blue and preferred these to the mp110, this is my own personal choice and maybe my ears are getting old but at the moment I am using an AT vm95ml fitted to my Kenwood KD990 and in general it's great but can sound a bit bright on high notes, the best-balanced cart I have tried is the Goldring 1042, I am also pleased with the Grado Black2 that I have on my Thorens TD160 mk1, I am in the process of putting my Garrard 401 together with a plinth I bought from Moldovia, and I will try my collection of carts on that to determine which one I think is best.
 
ghamilton said:
I have the AT-VM95ML and it is not too bright on my system. That's what suggest.
Click to expand...
Its a very good cartridge and I love it, but running it with a Onkyo 9010 amp and Yamaha nsf-51 speakers and the tone set at defeat, it can hit some very high notes and sometimes a little too shrill.
 
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Nucities said:
Thanks for the feedback group, much appreciated. If the JN-P200 can provide a bit more detail I'll be golden. Easy upgrade and yes I really do like the Nagaoka MP110, best value cartridge I've ever heard.
Click to expand...

Yes, your going to hear much better details in the higher frequencies with the 200 stylus. :music:
 
I've been reading a lot of good things about the Denon DL 103 (approx $350) - I don't know how well it would integrate into ur system but it's in ur price range. There are several companies customizing them and selling them at a higher price (ranging from $600 - $2,000 depending on what they do to them).

I just bought a Victor QL-Y5 turntable that came with an Audio-Technica AT-F3 (dual moving coil) cartridge which I hate - too much surface noise, pops & clicks - and my records always get a thorough cleaning on a VPI record cleaning machine (the first & most important upgrade to any vinyl system). I don't know why it's so noisy, but I can't stand to listen to it and I ordered a Denon DL-103R - sure hope this fixes the problem. My phono amp is a Krell KPE Ref with Krell amp & preamp & ML Summit speakers.

Let us know what u decide to buy and what u think of ur new cartridge.
 
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