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Cartridge recommendations

Need a need a new Cartridge for my Marantz Tt150. Want a good cartridge without breaking the bank. 300-500 range. Someone recommend ortofon 2m Blue.am I making a mistake not spending more? Seems you can go crazy with cartridge costs.I have a Prima Luna primium hp, a pro ject ds tube phono stage and a pair of Focal Electra 1028 Be. Appreciate your input.
128x128tastypeter
harrylavo's avatar
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harrylavo
118 posts
 
Frankly, I'd go with the idea of (at least eventually) a better TT, and buy a used ADC XLM or ZLM body and equip it with a Shibata stylis from JILCO in Jampan.  Total cost; no more that $250, and one of the bestt mm cartridges ever made, upgraded even further by the shibata stylus.
schubert
4,867 posts
 
There is nothing wrong with his Marantz TT .Agree with ADC but 40-50 year old bodies are not the best .A Nagakoa MP 150 or 200-300 has better tone than any ADC ever had , I owned at least 20 ADC’s back in the day and there were very fast , loved them .
tastypeter's avatar
tastypeter OP
7 posts
 
Actually my Marantz is a tt151 made by Clear Audio / not tt150 my error.

I also settled on spending more money, and went with the Soundsmith Zephyr mimc star. I very much also liked there rebuild policy for 20% of the cartridge cost.

Thank you everyone for your great input, I considered many of them.

Peter
boxer12
1,703 posts
 
Let us know how you like it. Soundsmith is a great company. 
reubent
3,587 posts
 
@tastypeter - Sorry, late to the party. But can you please clarify what Turntable you have? You mentioned it is built by ClearAudio. Is the the current Marantz TT15S1, built by Clearaudio? Is it the all acrylic TT that sells for $1499 MSRP, including the ClearAudio Virtuoso cartridge?
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