Swapping the MMF 5 for an SL-1210M5G

Michael, if I'm not mistaken, you have a $23,000 preamp, $18,000 amp, and $50,000 speakers.

Why are you intent on purchasing a cartridge below $299?

Seems kind of like owning a $250,000 Ferrari and driving a few miles farther to buy Arco instead of Chevron to save $.05/gallon. (Perhaps not the best analogy...it will undoubtedly encourage debate about gasoline brands...but you get my point.)

If you want some qualified local help with your analog set-up, you might consider taking a drive to visit Brooks Berdan Ltd in Monrovia, or perhaps Gene Rubin in Oxnard. I've also heard good things about Elliot Midwood of Acoustic Image in Studio City, but I have not met or spoken with him. All these guys are analog specialists.

You will not get good advice at Guitar Center or The Turtable Lab. The salespeople don't know diddly beyond DJ set-ups.

Off topic, but...... I have a hard time buying a guitar from guitar center...... can't imagine trying to get an analog rig from them...

Tvad,

You are right but i have reached my audio budget given a wife whose limits i am testing. I am willing to spend around $299....not insisting on less

I wanted to exchange the existing cartridge by the same dealer becaus he wont refund the $ on shure cartridge but that is unlikely because of his limited cartridges and so am willing to spend

Well the bottom line is its not the table.. it’s the setup of the table and your willingness to do this as correct as possible at this ponit. You made your own assumption correctly, you know you have too much invested to have it fail at this point… They should be able to get you like an audio technica OC9 or whatever I believe and it is about 299 on a sale, It has excellent reviews and you can find the right impedance settings running your MC phono stage I am sure…

But also HIGHLY suggest on learning about table setup, so you can tweak it out and understand what changes in certain parameters will effect what, I suggest playing with the VTA(arm height) trying to use a ruler and leveling it out on the M5G table, also having a 50 dollar Digital Stylus gauge to help you tweak the weight on your cart correctly and even have an idea how heavy or lite you are which will help get optimal bass and treble response and also helps peace of mind so you know realistically how optimal you have everything set up.. Also table isolation and the mats will be a big thing on any table..

So here is your issue, you do not want to spend more, but to justify your journey here at all especially with the front end equipment you have, believe that you will in time need not only the right matching cart, but several decent accessories/Tools to pull the most out of your analog setup if you want to be as good as you know that dartzeel system should be for the money.. So keep the table and patiently acquire all the knowledge and stuff needed to get you to the next level.

I went thru a similar growing pain a few years back and finally figured out, not only do you need a good table and phono stage which you absolutely have, but clean cared for Vinyl which will also dramatically improve your playback via possible RCM… Good stylus maintenance(maybe oznow Zerodust), Good Cart matching your preamps phono setting capabilitys, Good isolation table and possible Platter mats from like Herbies, Iso, boston, whoever… It takes a little patience to set up and align all the parameters on your table to get this performance you seek out of such a sensitive and powerful setup you have. Its not as plug and play as some other rigs that’s for sure.

I just ordered the highly regarded classic denon dl-103 "low output" cartridge that some use for the technics...

Thanks for the help!

Michael