Recommend me a Cartridge

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Aug 10, 2019
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Hi

My current turntable setup consists of:

Dual 505-1 turntable

Rotel RA-820AX amplifier

Mordaunt-Short MS-10 speakers

I would like a new cartridge that will play all types of music very
well from Heavy Metal and Rock to Blues and Jazz and maybe some
Classical (if that matters when choosing, I'm pretty new to turntables
so don't know too much about them at the moment). I have a budget of
about £100'ish but I want to keep it below that if possible. Can you
recommend anything?

Thanks for your help.
 
I reckon I have a pretty "catholic" taste in music much like yourself so I'd recommend a Goldring 2200 (About £100) I just bought one a few weeks ago and am very happy with it. Also you can always upgrade this cartridge later with a new stylus rather than needing a whole new assembly.
 
Hi

Is it worth spending a lot on a cartridge when my setup is pretty average overall? I mean, I'm looking at getting an Ortofon OM5E instead now as they are only about £38 and they seem to get good reviews and are seen as reliable.

Thanks for your help.
 
d3moliti0n:I'm looking at getting an Ortofon OM5E instead now as they are only about £38 and they seem to get good reviews and are seen as reliable.

I had one of those on my setup - was very happy with it - then when I wanted to upgrade I only needed to change the stylus - and have gone up now to the OM10
 
Audio Technica AT110E - roughly £35. Legendary cartridge, performance way above its' price band.
 
the record spot:Audio Technica AT110E - roughly £35. Legendary cartridge, performance way above its' price band.

Was Legendary. Sadly no more.

The AT-110E was discontinued in early 2009...the AT-95E is now the audiophile entry AT cartridge, at around £30-35.

TBH, the Ortofon OM5E is such a good match for the Dual's ultra low mass arm, I can't see a good reason for looking at anything else. And it can be upgraded via different styli, from the 10 at around £50, up to the 40 at £200.
 
Bit of a problem there. The Dual CS505-1 was originally fitted with an Ortofon TKS49S cartridge (badged Dual) which used a unique slider mechanism to secure it to the headshell rather than the normal 1/2 inch mounting. Now, at that time there was an adaptor available which meant you could also use normal cartridges but (unfortunately) I haven't seen one of these for over 15 years and there is no other way of fitting a standard cartridge to the deck. If you can find one of these sliders on Ebay then you may be in luck, otherwise you are somewhat stuck with the original cartridge.

Unfortunately, as it was an OEM product, the license for resale was with Dual and (to the best of my knowledge) this has never been released.
 
TBH, new turntable time.

Dual 505/2s go for about £30 on ebay, and have the standard 1/2" cartridge mount.

The Pioneer PL-12d is also a good bet for similar money (I have both, and for my money the Pioneer is ahead by a fair margin).

Either a 505/2 or a Pl-12d (with either the AT-95E for the pioneer or a OM5E for the 505/2) shouldn't set you back much more than £60 or so. Still well within budget...
 
Well considering I only bought the turntable, amp and speakers about a month ago (I'm brand new to the world of vinyl and turntables) there is no way I will be buying another of any of those items at any time soon. I just want a cartridge to play records, not some Nasa space station setup. People go into way too much detail for my liking, I just want to collect vinyl and be able to play it at a good quality, I don't want ridiculously expensive components or certain audio qualities etc. Just a good quality playback of vinyl.

I have been told on many occasions that the OM5e will fit a Dual CS 505-1. I have also been told that it is a good cartridge for the money and may be a bit 'light' or 'fatiguing' but I honestly have no idea what that means and I couldn't care less. I just want to be able to play my records without them getting damaged and to a good audio quality. End of.
 
its a good cartridge so you can buy with confidence

also its upgradeable if one day the urge strikes
 
one off:
its a good cartridge so you can buy with confidence

also its upgradeable if one day the urge strikes

Thank you, a straight and to the point answer. That is more like it. I don't really want to know the ins and outs of how these things work, I just want to know whether it's good/worth the money and if it will work with my setup.

Thanks again.
 
I'm a little offended by your comments - we are only trying to help.

To put things basically - if the headshell (that's the bit on the end of the arm that holds the cartridge) has two screws, you can put on whatever cartridge you want.

If it has only one (as Henley suspects) then you are stuck, and no amount of comments will help.

End of rant.
 
I apologise if it was a bit strong but as I said, people tend to veer completely off the topic by suggesting I buy new turntables and tonearms etc. Surely there must be simpler ways, such as cartridges available for that specific type of headshell, rather than having to buy a whole new turntable or tonearm, thats if it won't fit, I'm not sure cos I'm not at home at the moment so I can't check the headshell for the number of screws it has.
 
Looking at your deck from the ebay link, you can use any cartridge within your budget as it has the slide adaptor.
 
The cartridge that is on there at the moment is an Empire 2000E IV. I don't know much about the cartridge and can't find any information about it. I also couldn't find a replacement stylus for it but that Musonic website appears to have one.

I don't know if that cartridge is a 'normal' cartridge that utilises a slider, as I don't know what a slider looks like, as I said, I'm pretty much a newbie to the world of vinyl and turntables so know nothing about them really (just the names of the different parts of the turntable), I'm just looking to get everything up and running at good audio quality.

I didn't mean to sound insulting with my earlier comments, I just don't understand what people are talking about most of the time.

Anyway, thanks again for everyones help in this thread. I will try to get a picture up of the headshell when I get home and then you can inform me whether it has the required adapter to use any cartridge.

Thanks again.
 
gregory:Looking at your deck from the ebay link, you can use any cartridge within your budget as it has the slide adaptor.

What ebay link?
 
OK thanks. I had one of those decks for about 23 years and couldn't now remember what the headshell looked like. IIRC the finger lift acts as a locking device - it pushes back to release the cartridge and pulls forward to lock it in place. The small screw secures it in place I think but be wary of over-tightening it. Just a *** will suffice.
 
Hi

So does that mean I can use any cartridge I like with this turntable? Does it have what is needed to use 'standard' cartridges? As I ordered the OM5e back on Sunday, still not been despatched yet though. So if it will work, great, if not I'll have to return it and buy the stylus for my current cartridge.

Thanks again.
 
d3moliti0n:
Hi

So does that mean I can use any cartridge I like with this turntable? Does it have what is needed to use 'standard' cartridges? As I ordered the OM5e back on Sunday, still not been despatched yet though. So if it will work, great, if not I'll have to return it and buy the stylus for my current cartridge.

Thanks again.

Great, I just spent ages typing a reply and just before I could click on 'Post' my thumb caught a side button on the mouse and the text completely disappeared. I'm having to use this PC rather than my Mac on this forum but that's a long story. Anyway, I'll try again...

These Dual 505-1 turntables were shipped with the Ortofon OM10 cartridge. Mine was and I don't recall any issues with its mounting or use. The OM10 is a standard 1/2" mount cartridge but with the Dual 505-1 it simply clamped onto the headshell using the finger lift bar locking device I explained in a previous post. No mounting screws were/are required. As I said, the single screw on top of the headshell is simply to lock the finger lift in place. The cartridge would stay locked in place without this small screw but it's there to stop you inadvertently pushing the bar back when you lift the arm. Note this tt is semi-automatic not fully automatic so you have to move the arm across to the rim of the record to start the platter spinning.

When you check your tt at home and can confirm this headshell arrangement by untightening the screw and seeing if the cartridge drops down when you move the finger lift (can't be 100% certain whether it's forward or back) you will be able to mount any standard 1/2" mount cart. HTH.
 
d3moliti0n:I apologise if it was a bit strong but as I said, people tend to veer completely off the topic by suggesting I buy new turntables and tonearms etc. Surely there must be simpler ways, such as cartridges available for that specific type of headshell, rather than having to buy a whole new turntable or tonearm, thats if it won't fit, I'm not sure cos I'm not at home at the moment so I can't check the headshell for the number of screws it has.

I'd read again Henley's comments, since he happens to distribute Ortofon in the UK.

EDIT - sorry, was looking at page 1 and didn't realise there was a page 2, seems there have been further developments...
 
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