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Audio Technica AT ML-180 Cartridge Advice

Just acquired an Audio Technica AT ML-180 cartridge with broken cantilever and was looking for advice on where to get a new cantilever rebuild and what material to choose from. My preference is a new Boron cantilever but was not sure who, apart from Soundsmith, offers this service.

Also would like to know which is the best tonearm to use for this cartridge once it's fixed. It can either go on my Audiomods Series 5 (eff. mass approx. 11g) or the arm on my Yamaha GT 2000 which has an effective mass of approx. 20g.

Thanks in advance.
ateal
ateal OP
95 posts
 
WOW, so many great responses. Thanks so much for all the information. I need to go through it all and digest.

Based on the comments it sounds like the lighter weight tonearm would be the best, which is what I am good with. 

Also sounds like I need to go for Boron with the best stylus profile. 

Thanks again 


nandric's avatar
nandric
3,263 posts
 

Dear chakster, Before you make jokes about my ''best MC cart''

you should check tech. specs . of my Allaerts MC 2 . You will

not believe what you see. Now regarding our advice to ateal.

My (pre) assumptions are that no retipper can provide the right

cantilever/stylus combo as well that the AT 160 can be get for

about 300 GBP. In this context I think that AT 160 is his best

option. If ateal lives in Europe he can borrow my AT 160 to try.

If the postage to Russian Federation was cheaper you could

also and at last learn about AT 160 (grin).

chakster's avatar
chakster
2,482 posts
 
Allaerts MC 2 - is that the one which cost like a used car ? 

Well, thanks for the offer, but i will stick to my working AT-ML180 OCC 
It was a genius combination to end up with 300 quid offer for AT-ML160, someone should buy it to compared to 170 and tell me the truth.  
ateal OP
95 posts
 
What would be a better option.

1) Use AT ML150 Stylus with gold plated berylium, or
2) Have Expert Stylus or Garrott Bros install new Boron rod to existing Stylus assembly.

I am thinking option 1 which may be considerably cheaper.

chakster's avatar
chakster
2,482 posts
 
I just want to add one very important thing you have missed. The generator of your AT-ML180 is electrically different from all previous models, so it is not designed to use styli from lower models. Most likely those styli will never sound correct with such a different generator. The inductance of AT-ML180 is different than AT-ML170, 160, 150, 140.

If your generator is AT-ML180 the replacement stylus must be ATN180ML.

But if your generator is not the AT-ML180 then you don’t have any problem to chande the styli, because 170,150,140 generators are the same (electrically). However, for the same reason you can't use ATN180ML stylus from AT-ML180 cart on any other cartridge in AT-ML line. 

So i think the only option is to refurbish your existing stylus by someone who understand that at-ml180 is very special cartridge.
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