Thoughts on two budget cartridges

[chowder857]

Hello all - I am refurbishing my Hitachi HT-20 - which I got new when I was in high school - to play records that I haven't played for at least 25 years. The TT is in great shape, I think all it needs is some lubrication or any other maintenance that's described in the service manual, which was easy to find online.

I don't have much $$ to spend on a stylus or cartridge, and so I'm getting less-than-audiophile quality, but good enough for me thoroughly enjoy my old records. To follow my curiosity, I am wondering if anyone has perspective on the two cartridges I have.

The TT now has a Digitrac 280e, and it sounds fine but I am assuming that there's no way the stylus is up to par. But instead of getting a new stylus for that one, I decided to get a new Ortofon Omega, which also has an elliptical stylus and gets decent reviews for a budget unit. I might also get a new stylus for the Digitrac, and I am surprised to see that a) new styluses are still available, and b) that Digitrac might have been made by Ortofon.

Has anyone here used either of these, and do you have any opinions on them? Maybe there are other budget cartridges (around 40 bucks) that might sound better?

 

[E.Man]

Yes. Digitrac was an Ortofon budget range.
The budget part was the cartridge which tended to fail. The stylus were Ortofon fine.
I put a Digitrac stylus on my Ortofon cart. OM 'stylus 30' equivalent. Sounded great.

 

[Crab33]

I think you are going along the right lines with the Ortofon Omega, as that arm looks light and will need relatively a high-compliance stylus. I don't have the Omega but I see its specs are similar to those of the OM5E. If you can push your budget, the Ortofon Super-OM10 would be a good choice.

There are not many modern high-compliance options outside the Ortofon ranges. The Grado Prestige cartridges are a possibility but there is then the question of whether they will hum with the Hitachi, a possible consequence of their unshielded design.

 

[knotscott]

AT-VM95e on the high side of budget ($45-$49)....can add some really nice stylus upgrades down the road if you ever choose to.

AT-3600L on the low side of budget (~ $11-$20). Nicely balanced and pleasant for such a low cost bugger.

 

[Wolfie62]

The AT3600L is a nice sounding cartridge, and cheap ($20). But.... it comes with a low compliance stylus, tracking at around 2.3 grams. Same for the VM95. The HT-20 (1981) was made for high compliance carts, tracking 0.7-1.5 grams, typically.

So if the OP buys either AT carts, he’s looking at getting a different stylus right off the bat.

An alternative is the OM20 stylus replacement, the Swiss nude elliptical for $30. I have one on my Super OM cart. Tracks at 1.5 grams and sounds great!