Affordable Mono Cartridge For VPI Scout

I am including a link , if it will go on, to a Denon 102 Mono on ebay by Yogi Comp. I have bought 2 cartridges from them and been very happy. It runs $175 so not too much invested, Denon makes some very good moving coils that are absurdly cheap by todays standards. Also available in high output.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Denon-DL102-Mono-Moving-Coil-Cartridge-DL-102_W0QQitemZ140348465840QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item20ad6ba2b0#ht_1312wt_962

I have used the Denon 103 and 110 in mine, haven't seen a 102 in the flesh but it shouldn't be too different you would think.

I use the 103 in both the 9" and 12.7 VPI arms, the recommended arm mass for the 103 is 6-16 grams, both arms fall well within this range. When it was tested by HiFI Choice in 1985 they estimated the actual compliance as 13 both lat and vert., which is higher than the figure of 10 or so often given. I doubt that they have changed the construction in the intervening years.

I have never had a mono cartridge, started with a mono system but a stereo cartridge so do not claim to be an expert, was led to that site by thread on another forum, all opinions expressed by them are theirs and not mine. Correct info appears to be hard to get, one site has a mono version of the Audio Techina 33, the AT 33 mono for $375, on another site there is the apparently identical AT 3 mono for $175. As I said I played my monos with a Stereo cartridge starting in 1962 and can't remember anyone making a big fuss about it in the days when mono LPs were common. Some time ago I posted my disbelief that mono cartridges should cost twice the price of the stereo version. Despite the considerable outcry at my ignorance of such matters I persist in it.

Here is another one.
http://www.lptunes.com/Audio-Technica-AT-MONO-3-LP-cartridge-p/atmono3lp.htm

Look at it this way, get one of the $175 cartridges. Then 1, you like it, you have saved $800. 2. you don't like it, you sell it as mint for $125, you have lost $50. I think those are good odds. Despite having a totally ridiculous amount of money invested in audio I use Denon and AT cartridges because I find they work very well and I am not convinced you get more with higher price. If spending more makes you feel better fine but sound quality and dollars spent are not always in direct correlation. Hmm, if enough people feel this way I should change the name of my business from Alternative Audio to Stan's Spa and stress the regenerative effect of audio expenditures.

The following is from the Audiotools.com site.
Pickups and stylii for the playback of Mono LP records
Modern stereo records have use a groove that is about 18µm, earlier mono microgroove records however had a groove width of around 25µm (usually slightly more than this or up-to 28µm), the difference is small enough to mean that you can usually play a mono LP with a modern stylus but for optimal results it's best to have a stylus especially cut for mono lp's and a true mono pickup (not rewired or a plain stereo pickup) and indeed a few companies make such pickups and stylii. Ortofon has the OM 10 Super repackaged with a 25µm stylus for the playback of mono LP's as the OM D25M, note that this is still a stereo cart and that this stylus is available separatly and will fit all OM, OM Super, OMP, TM and Concorde type pickups from the company. There are also SPU variants for this purpose and those are true mono pickups, namely the SPU Mono A, the SPU Mono GM, the slightly cheaper Classic SPU Mono CG25Di and the Classic SPU Mono CA25Di. Audio Technica has the AT-Mono 3/LP, it's a variant of the AT-33 like the 3/SP but has a full frequency range. Lyra offers the Helicon Mono MC pickup with a stylus for Mono LP's, it's a true mono unit and My Sonic Lab has the My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo which is a true mono MC unit as well. Expert Stylus has 25µ stylii that can be glued onto any cart (I belive they have variants for used with worn mono LP's as well). Note that while Grado offers at the least 2 mono pickups these use 10µm stylii and are thus usable with mono records but not optimal like the pickups here above, these are also not true mono pickups but rather stereo models wired in series.