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Cheap Cartridge for friend's system

M

Mark Packer

All Rev'd up!
I am putting together some kit for some friends as a gift.

I've sourced a NAD 3130 amp and some Mission speakers and would like to replace the cartridge on their Rega 2 TT.

What would you suggest MM wise? I don't think it's going to get a lot of use but they'll never know unless they can actually play a record :) So, I'm thinking of the AT cartridges.
 
Ortofon m2 red, cracking budget cart and I don't know of anything better for less, another obvious choice is the rega elys and for a little more the ortofon m2 blue.
All the above carts work brilliantly on a P2/3
 
AT95E. A 20€ bargain at williamthakker.eu and a more than decent cartridge, especially on a Rega arm.

Don't mind the OM series cartridge, but have heard the 2M red can be a bit sharp and isn't the best tracker.
 
avole said:
AT95E. A 20€ bargain at williamthakker.eu and a more than decent cartridge, especially on a Rega arm.

Don't mind the OM series cartridge, but have heard the 2M red can be a bit sharp and isn't the best tracker.
Click to expand...

Ime the ortofon m2 carts track very well indeed, I have used the red and blue with rega decks and I'm now contemplating a bronze. I wouldn't call them sharp by any means, punchy tight bass and good detail retrieval, is what I have had from them.

I don't know the AT95E but if it's anything like a linn K9 then for the money it would be worth a punt, the K9 (which was based on the AT95e) worked like a charm on a rega, in fact for what they cost I might just pick one up to cure my curiosity!
 
Maybe a Nagaoka MP-110 would be worthwhile considering, extremely musical, warm sounding cartridges with great bass and handles surface noise extremely well. I'm finding that my Nagaoka MP-11 Boron is an improvement on my previous cartridge which was an Ortofon 2M Blue.
 
I was happy with the AT95. I eventually changed to a denon dl110 just for the sake of change no performance issues.
The 95 did miss things compared to a denon dl110 but look at the price difference!
I found that whilst using the 95 I was happy with the presentation. Its only when you compare directly that you can see differences, omissions etc. At its price point its a star performer IMO.
 
Another thumbs-up for the AT95E here but if you can find a new example of the now-discontinued AT110E (there are still some about) then it's only about £10-£15 more and is an even better performer.
 
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