Sony PUA-237 owners: cartridge recommendations?

[JMC79]

I recently picked up a Sony TTS-3000A in incredible condition for the shockingly ridiculous price of $20. I’m quickly falling in love with this table and planning on making it my primary. It’s equipped with the PUA-237 arm and I’m looking for recommendations on a cartridge. It has the original Sony headshell which is a nice bonus.

Also wondering if anyone has info on the serial numbers? Wondering when this one date from serial is 50426

Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[Crab33]

Looks a very nice catch. Cartridges can cost anything from a few tens of dollars to hundreds or thousands. Do you have a particular budget in mind?

It seems that the arm was originally fitted with an MC cartridge but you could go for an MM.

http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-PUA-237.html

Do you know the effective mass of the arm? This helps in recommending a cartridge, although I would imagine this arm to be medium-mass or higher.

 

[JMC79]

Looks a very nice catch. Cartridges can cost anything from a few tens of dollars to hundreds or thousands. Do you have a particular budget in mind?

It seems that the arm was originally fitted with an MC cartridge but you could go for an MM.

http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-PUA-237.html

Do you know the effective mass of the arm? This helps in recommending a cartridge, although I would imagine this arm to be medium-mass or higher.

Thanks for the reply,
Only info I’ve been able to find is that it’s “moderate to high mass”
As for what I can spend I’d like to keep it under $300.

 

[Crab33]

In that case, you should go for a medium-compliance cartridge - you choice will be quite wide in this category. If you're going for an MM cartridge, I'd recommend that you look at the Audio Technica AT-VM95 range - perhaps the AT-VM95ML with MicroLine stylus, which is particularly good value. If you want to take a step into MC, the Denon DL-110 would be a good candidate - this is a high-output MC cartridge that you can use with an MM phono-stage. I suggest you take a look at the reviews of these cartridges.

 

[Sam Cogley]

Dang. Nice score!

If you haven't already picked up on it, that upper right corner of the frame is removable so the arm has room to move. The original TTS-3000 was made to use with the longer PUA-236 arm.

The 236/237 are supposed to be very nice arms that are kind of overlooked these days. Sony, overall, is still kind of overlooked as a high-end manufacturer, though they still continue with their habit of making bleeding-edge stuff that they don't really advertise, while also making much more visible electronic equipment at every price point imaginable. Most of the other Japanese electronics companies created separate hi-end brand names for market differentiation. Sony is just...weird.