Pioneer pl-50 with Pickering v-15 cartridge

[yoho]

I just got a pioneer pl-50 turntable with a Pickering v-15 cartridge with no stylus. What would be a good stylus for everyday listening? Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

 

[bang4buck]

We recently lost one of our resident Pickering experts due to a, well, disagreement with site management, but I'll try my best. The good news is that the Pickering V-15 has some in-house siblings. It's the same cartridge as a Stanton 500, and both of these also exist in P-mount versions. So in total you have four families of styli that will all fit.

The bad news is they're all long out of production. What's left of Stanton/Pickering is owned by Gibson guitars, which itself is in financial trouble. Aftermarket suppliers have a hard time making good replacements.

A good starting point is The Voice of Music, known around here as TVOM. No affiliation other than being a satisfied customer. https://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/catalog/phono_needles.asp
Look for Pfanstiehl numbers 604, 605, 820 and 826. You'll see only a few remaining originals, mostly in the higher tracking force range originally intended for jukeboxes etc., and none of them cheap.

To get going and find out if you even like the sound, there's a seller on ebay named felo3000 who's been offering Colombian-made TEI brand styli for years. About $12 shipped. I haven't tried one myself but they are said to be excellent for the price, and made exactly like the originals. They are however simple conicals, even though some of the listings say otherwise.

I used a Pickering DE stylus on mine for quite a while. That's one of the P-mount versions, which means nominally 1.25g tracking force and thus best used with a "light" tonearm. Hard to find now and usually priced out of proportion to what it is.

Finally, some similar sounding model numbers to avoid: Pickering XV-15, Pickering V-15 Micro IV, Shure V-15. Those are all incompatible.

 

[Balifly]

I just got a pioneer pl-50 turntable with a Pickering v-15 cartridge with no stylus.

What would be a good stylus for everyday listening?

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Buy the best within your budget, spend once only.

Some users would get the least costly and and slowly move up the ladder.

They end up with stylus that will not be used again.

 

[yoho]

Thanks for the advice, what great turntable.

We recently lost one of our resident Pickering experts due to a, well, disagreement with site management, but I'll try my best. The good news is that the Pickering V-15 has some in-house siblings. It's the same cartridge as a Stanton 500, and both of these also exist in P-mount versions. So in total you have four families of styli that will all fit.

The bad news is they're all long out of production. What's left of Stanton/Pickering is owned by Gibson guitars, which itself is in financial trouble. Aftermarket suppliers have a hard time making good replacements.

A good starting point is The Voice of Music, known around here as TVOM. No affiliation other than being a satisfied customer. https://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/catalog/phono_needles.asp
Look for Pfanstiehl numbers 604, 605, 820 and 826. You'll see only a few remaining originals, mostly in the higher tracking force range originally intended for jukeboxes etc., and none of them cheap.

To get going and find out if you even like the sound, there's a seller on ebay named felo3000 who's been offering Colombian-made TEI brand styli for years. About $12 shipped. I haven't tried one myself but they are said to be excellent for the price, and made exactly like the originals. They are however simple conicals, even though some of the listings say otherwise.

I used a Pickering DE stylus on mine for quite a while. That's one of the P-mount versions, which means nominally 1.25g tracking force and thus best used with a "light" tonearm. Hard to find now and usually priced out of proportion to what it is.

Finally, some similar sounding model numbers to avoid: Pickering XV-15, Pickering V-15 Micro IV, Shure V-15. Those are all incompatible.

We recently lost one of our resident Pickering experts due to a, well, disagreement with site management, but I'll try my best. The good news is that the Pickering V-15 has some in-house siblings. It's the same cartridge as a Stanton 500, and both of these also exist in P-mount versions. So in total you have four families of styli that will all fit.

The bad news is they're all long out of production. What's left of Stanton/Pickering is owned by Gibson guitars, which itself is in financial trouble. Aftermarket suppliers have a hard time making good replacements.

A good starting point is The Voice of Music, known around here as TVOM. No affiliation other than being a satisfied customer. https://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/catalog/phono_needles.asp
Look for Pfanstiehl numbers 604, 605, 820 and 826. You'll see only a few remaining originals, mostly in the higher tracking force range originally intended for jukeboxes etc., and none of them cheap.

To get going and find out if you even like the sound, there's a seller on ebay named felo3000 who's been offering Colombian-made TEI brand styli for years. About $12 shipped. I haven't tried one myself but they are said to be excellent for the price, and made exactly like the originals. They are however simple conicals, even though some of the listings say otherwise.

I used a Pickering DE stylus on mine for quite a while. That's one of the P-mount versions, which means nominally 1.25g tracking force and thus best used with a "light" tonearm. Hard to find now and usually priced out of proportion to what it is.

Finally, some similar sounding model numbers to avoid: Pickering XV-15, Pickering V-15 Micro IV, Shure V-15. Those are all incompatible.

 

[yoho]

Buy the best within your budget, spend once only.

Some users would get the least costly and and slowly move up the ladder.

They end up with stylus that will not be used again.

I agree, thank you.

 

[johnjhazel]

I second buying from Voice of Music. The owner, Gary, is great. He has arranged needle info into easy to use listings. BTW, nothing wrong with conicals but I have bought 604, 605, and 606(for the XV-15) from Gary. Some Swiss some EVG Japan. All good. IN fact, the Swiss made had a tighter grip fit and did not come loose. But, that is a very small sample size. At Gary's prices, buy a few different ones. The only difference between the 604 and 605 is the brush. 604 does not have brush. 605 has brush.