On buying "needles"

[guest102]

This all started when my new toy arrived, a pre-owned turntable in a big box. It came with an Audio-Technica AT-90E cartridge. After a bit of research I discover the cartridge is a middle-of-the-road unit, somewhere between "wow" and "just toss it". I decided to find a stylus for it and see what it's got.

My search takes me to styli for it's cousin, the AT-12 series of cartridges, and I find a shibata which seems slightly extravagant for a trial run. No hyper-ellipticals pop out either. Elliptical tips, however I find, and most of what I view from vendors tells me I could have an elliptical tip, and through mildly flowery prose their ads try to seduce me with promises of how nicely the stylus will interface with records. These ads leave me with at least two important questions. Number one, which elliptical tip will I get? A 0.4 x 0.7 mil tip, or a 0.3 x 0.7 mil tip? And what tracking force am I to use?

Searches like this invariably lead me to one particular vendor (sorry, no names, don't want to get in trouble...) who always includes a great deal of supporting information about styli, such as who makes them, tip dimensions, recommended tracking force, cartridges it could be used on, and to my eyes top-drawer pictures. Truthfully, it's the information that always draws me in to commit to a purchase. The information is everything I need to get the best out of the stylus I decide to buy. (edit: I bought a stylus from this vendor.)

 

[dumptruck]

Are you talking about the blue ATS12 stylus? It's good. Go for it. Should be around $30 IIRC. 1.5g.

 

[marcmorin]

Are you talking about the blue ATS12 stylus? It's good. Go for it. Should be around $30 IIRC. 1.5g.

Umm...yeah, the blue one should be cheap enough, but the ATS12 will be white in color, and have a shibata stylus. You find those for $30.00 each, you should buy the complete inventory, as they are running about a C note these days.

 

[dumptruck]

That's ATS12S

 

[speedle]

Ugh, this is why I bought an 11E for my AT-666. AT styli are just too confusing for my simple head. 28 bucks, seems to make nice music, lotsa bass, recessed mids, crisp highs. I'm happy, but now I'm wanting a 12!

 

[1tumbleweed]

Not much difference, body-wise, between an 11 and a 12. I'm using an ATN12S OEM stylus on my 11 body, and it's a great sounding cart. Not quite the equal of my AT15, but better than a sharp stick in the eye.

 

[lini]

ec1st: Mentioning the turntable/tonearm you'd like to mount it on wouldn't harm, as that would make a difference regarding which elliptical needle variant (ATS11E, ATS12 or ATN12XE) would be most suitable in your case...

Oh, and I wouldn't deem a Shibata (ATN12S or ATS12S, of which the latter may even come nude, if you're lucky...) so extravagant at all.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[guest102]

I had not intended for this post to drift toward what type of stylus to buy. It was supposed to be about the lack of information one deals with at times in finding appropriate styli for one's needs.

However, on it's unintended drift, the post has revealed some useful information for the AT-90E cartridge, and I am thankful for that.

And, for the record, the cartridge came with a Technics SL-1800MK2 I bought. The trial stylus I picked, based on technical information, price, and what came up in the search at the time, was the JICO brand named:

http://www.turntableneedles.com/ATN12XE-for-Audio-Technica-AT12XE-our-needle-201-DEX_p_918.html

A .3 x .7 mil elliptical stylus, not top of the line exactly, but a nice sounding budget unit which is breaking in well, opening up and expanding it's soundfield, and good at finding detail in recordings. It is competitive with the roughly dozen other Shure, A-T, and ADC Integra cartridges I pick through when things get a bit boring and might be worth an exotic upgrade if that whim ever strikes me.

The AT-90E came with a green generic, I assume, cartridge like what the no-information vendors offer as the replacement for it. The stylus needed solvent cleaning to reveal itself and with the limited magnification I have it may be either a .4 x .7 mil or conical stylus. I can't say for sure. Since I can't tell how much wear is on it I set it aside for now and opted for a known new stylus.