additional processing and customs charges on goldring 1006 or nagaoka mp150
The Grado Gold would be a good match with a 12 gram arm. It is within your budget! https://www.needledoctor.com/analog/analog-components/Phono-Cartridges/brand/Grado-Labs |
@invictus005 12g does not work well for low compliance cartridges, you need 20-30g effective mass to be optimal for DL-103, Ortofon SPU and many other low compliance carts. Pioneer made for professional market, the company itself is DJ oriented nowadays, all their products are for DJs/Clubs. This is their niche and nothing else. If they were Technics they could make P-10 Exclussive again, but Hi-End is not their interest anymore. Pioneer is the leader on the mass market for clubs/djs, but mostly with their CDJ players and mixers, not with their vinyl turntables, professionals still use Technics. The best material for the cantilever in my opinion is the Beryllium (not available today) and this is one of the reasons those vintage cartridges with Beryllium cantilevers are so special. It was not a problem to use Hollow Boron Pipe for giant company line JVC Victor back in the days, but their choise was a Beryllium for the very best cartridges ever made, such as Victor X-1 and X-1II. And let me add one of the best cartridge made today - The Garrott Brothers (Dynamic Coil MM) P-77i from Australia. However, the vintage carts from the 80s are still better choice. This is the case when you pay very reasonable price for lightly used and perfectly working cartridges from the era when MM was a king (not the MC). Some of them utilized technology and materials that are not available today in MM design anymore (Tapered Boron Pipes or Beryllium cantilevers, patented generators like Moving Flux for example). Some of the high priced new mm cartridges today doesn't have a Nude Diamond, they are tipped. There is no competition between MM designers anymore. And some new " Coreless straight-flux cartridge " high-end MM cartridge from Japan (posted recently by Jonathan Carr in our MM thread) cost $8000 ? This is something new: http://topwing.jp/RedSparrow-en.html |
I’m not so sure about beryllium rods being better than boron pipes. Audio Technica took a different approach, ML150 used a beryllium rod and higher end models such as ML170 and ML180 used boron pipes. Very few cartridges used beryllium cantilevers as they are incredibly toxic during manufacturing. Most of these cartridges are very difficult to find in good working condition and are expensive. Best for OP to get either a modern Ortofon MM or modern Audio Technica MM. Current MMs may not have boron pipe or beryllium cantilevers, but nude stylus profiles and motors are state of the art. BTW, Ortofon 2M range is of the moving iron type. |
Grace, Pioneer, Audio-Technica, Victor used beryllium cantilevers in their top of the line cartridges, then it was prohibited and Boron became the top choice. I’m not trying to say that beryllium is better than Boron, but Beryllium is definitely better than Alluminum or Titanium. Density (gr/cm): 1.84 Beryllium / 2.69 Aluminum / 4.54 Titanium Young Modulus (kg/mm): 28,000 Beryllium / 7,400 Aluminum / 11,000 Titanium Velocity Of Sound Propagation (m/sec): 12,600 Beryllium / 6,420 Aluminum / 5,990 Titanium Most of these cartridges are very difficult to find in good working condition and are expensive. Best for OP to get either a modern Ortofon MM or modern Audio Technica MM. Yes, but i have spare in perfect condition, not only me, but many audiogon user have them. For example the Audio-Technica AT20SLa is about 350 euro with shipping. This is amazing high compliance cartridge. If you think the modern AT is better just read this: https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=100109 AT-Ml170 is also available along with NOS Victor X-1 if anyone interested, just PM me. Time machine in action! Different engineers and cartridge designers are working in the companies like Audio-Technica, people who designed cartridges in the 70s are retired, new people are woking on the new cartridges. The situation on the high-end market today is way different than in the 70s/80s. New cartridges are not always better, sometimes it’s compromise, especially when we’re talking about Moving Magnet cartridges, the trend today is MC, not MM. |
