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Which Cartridge should I keep?

DangerBoy

DangerBoy

Active Member
I recently imported 4 higher end vintage Denon DD turntables from Japan (I like Denons and am familiar with them) and bought another from a small town near where I live. I believe I got very good prices on each one of the turntables even with all the freight costs incurred for shipping the lot of 4 TTs from Japan factored in. :cool:

Each one of the TTs I bought came with a cartridge complete w/stylus. Here's the list of what I have:

Yamaha MC-11 (MC)
Shure ME97HE (MM)
Audio Technica F5 MC (MC)
Denon DL-107 (MM)
Stanton D680

My question is, which one should I keep? :dunno: :idea:

I don't have a phono amp that's set up for MC cartridges so I'm thinking the Yammy and the AT carts should probably be on the list to go unless people tell me that one of those MC carts is so superior to all the others that I'd be crazy to let it go. Of the MM carts, I've read some really good things about the quality of the Denon DL-107 and that it's also a difficult to come by cartridge so I'm leaning towards keeping that one but I'm interested to hear what the experts here think I should do.

My guess is that most recommendations will be for either the Shure or the Denon so it would be especially helpful to hear from someone who has tried/owned both of those cartridges and has first-hand knowledge of the strength and weaknesses of the two.
 
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kaplang said:
I'd be very surprised if you can resell and make a profit enough to cover the cost of the one you want to keep. I find that selling TTs is an uphill battle unless you have something really special. Their are hundreds on CL and eBay all competing for the same dollars and cents . AK has a very small amount of members looking for a TT unless as I said it's something special.

Of course this is all my un asked for opinion but good luck on your endeavor
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You're right, it was your un-asked for opinion and I'm sure your intentions were nothing but good. Thank you for your good wishes as well but with respect, please remember the point of this posting was to ask people's advice on which of the 5 listed cartridges should I keep and that nowhere in my posting did I ask people to guess whether they think I can make any money on these turntables without knowing what they are or what I paid for them. If you do have some advice to give on the original question that will help me I would really appreciate hearing it. If not, I'd really appreciate not hearing anyone speculate on what my chances are of making any profit on the four TTs I plan to sell. I'm simply not interested in hearing that. I'm only interested in hearing advice on which cartridge I should keep and why. Thank you.
 
If it were a heavier s-shaped arm I would say the Shure, but for that arm I suspect the Denon is a better compliance match.
 
If it were me, I'd keep the Yammie and Denon. But then, I already have iterations of the other 3....:oops:
 
DangerBoy said:
You're right, it was your un-asked for opinion and I'm sure your intentions were nothing but good. Thank you for your good wishes as well but with respect, please remember the point of this posting was to ask people's advice on which of the 5 listed cartridges should I keep and that nowhere in my posting did I ask people to guess whether they think I can make any money on these turntables without knowing what they are or what I paid for them. If you do have some advice to give on the original question that will help me I would really appreciate hearing it. If not, I'd really appreciate not hearing anyone speculate on what my chances are of making any profit on the four TTs I plan to sell. I'm simply not interested in hearing that. I'm only interested in hearing advice on which cartridge I should keep and why. Thank you.
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I also don't think you will make much profit on selling those TTs. :)
 
All this forum speculation is pointless. Assuming all the stylii are in good shape, give them a spin on whatever turntable you plan on keeping and listen. I'm not advocating that you order a MC preamp on Amazon and then return it if you don't keep one of the MC carts.

No one can make this decision intelligently for you. They're your ears, it's your music collection, it's your listening room and system. Good luck.
 
malden said:
If I'm not mistaken, the Shure ME97HE will be able to accept the new N97xE stylus, should you need one...

https://www.needledoctor.com/Shure-N97xE-Stylus
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If that's the case, can a M97xE take the Ne97HE stylus? If so, that might be a nice upgrade for users of that cartridge, though a bit expensive. They can be had on eBay for $159.00

I'm partial to the Shure HE stylus, though the Me (Encore) series was from the mid-eighties when "new manufacturing technologies result[ed] in cost-cutting economies" - they were able to make these older cartridges, cheaper. They claim it is "The Art of Reducing Costs Without Cutting Corners" and that each model is equal to or superior than the original it is based on.
 
DustyOldPile said:
All this forum speculation is pointless. Assuming all the stylii are in good shape, give them a spin on whatever turntable you plan on keeping and listen. I'm not advocating that you order a MC preamp on Amazon and then return it if you don't keep one of the MC carts.

No one can make this decision intelligently for you. They're your ears, it's your music collection, it's your listening room and system. Good luck.
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Not pointless, each of the five cartridges has it's own limitations in terms of performance and logistics (i.e., availability of replacement styli).

I know about Shure cartridges, @needlestein knows Stanton, and there are AK'ers that will provide useful information regarding the others. Not knowing the condition of any of the styli, It's not just about what the OP would hear if he simply mounted each cartridge in his turntable.
 
tw1st said:
If that's the case, can a M97xE take the Ne97HE stylus? If so, that might be a nice upgrade for users of that cartridge, though a bit expensive. They can be had on eBay for $159.00

I'm partial to the Shure HE stylus, though the Me (Encore) series was from the mid-eighties when "new manufacturing technologies result[ed] in cost-cutting economies" - they were able to make these older cartridges, cheaper. They claim it is "The Art of Reducing Costs Without Cutting Corners" and that each model is equal to or superior than the original it is based on.
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This HE stylus will fit a number of Shure cartridges including the M104E, M104, M110, M111, V15 Type RS, as well as the current production M97xE and M92E.

https://www.jico-stylus.com/product_info.php?products_id=1005
 
malden said:
Not pointless, each of the five cartridges has it's own limitations in terms of performance and logistics (i.e., availability of replacement styli).

I know about Shure cartridges, @needlestein knows Stanton, and there are AK'ers that will provide useful information regarding the others. Not knowing the condition of any of the styli, It's not just about what the OP would hear if he simply mounted each cartridge in his turntable.
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Yes, pointless. We don't know how many hours are on any of those cartridges, they're all older than Methuselah, and we don't know the variables that I mention above. Two are MC's and therefore don't have a replaceable stylus option, it's difficult to get a replacement Stanton stylus that's anywhere near the quality of the original, the Denon stylus isn't unobtanium but close and for what a decent Shure stylus will cost, one can do better just buying a brand new cart. Of course, since the OP already took offense to the idea of selling any of this, why doesn't he just audition them, pick the one he likes and put the rest in a shoe box and be done with it?

In these types of posts, if there's a clear winner in a pile of carts that a newbie wants to put on a PL-12D, that's one thing. But anyone who's having rare Denons shipped here from the Japanese market isn't going to settle for a Pfansteihl replacement stylus, or even a Tonar. What we have here is a pile of unobtanium in the form of NOS stylii on questionable, aged cartridges. What's wrong with this picture? Recommend anything you want, I'd bet one of those vintage Denons that the OP is going to go out and buy something new, expensive and esoteric anyway.
 
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