best recorded 78rpm to look for, also cartridge...

Thanks for all your great input!
I realize that 78s aren't high fidelity, but some of them, not most sound great weather it's high fidelity or not. The music for me is the main driven factor and I don't mind listening to any recorded media weather it's CD, MP3 or 78 rpm. As long as I hear musicians I like and music I like, I don't care about neither format or even recording/playback quality.

78s are a lot of fun and most all can be an interesting sonic treat albeit of a much different flavor than most recordings since.

I use an old Admiral multi speed player with cert cart and 78 needle to record old 78s to digital on my music server. It cost $10 at a yard sale when I was digging for something to play 78s on and works great!

Audio Technica, Grado, Ortofon, Pickering, and Stanton all make (or made) 78 rpm carts that are safe recommendations.

I'd stay away from the current Shure 78 cart. Its sound quality isn't in the same league as the others, IMHO.

One of the best periods for 78s is 1928 to 1934. Especially OKeh, Columbia and some Victors. After that, records got cheaper and quality went down. Look out for the Blue Wax Columbias!
It is worth investing in a good stylus for 78s. With a little care, they can sound very nice.

I have a single ended Tube player which I purchased from an Audio Visual Dept. sale at the local Elementary School.I cannot record from it but when I put A Blind Boy Fuller 78 on it ,I'm in heaven.The brand is Newcomb.

The Pickering D750 is a stylus, not a cartridge, that is designed for stereo playback. You will have much better sound reproduction if you use a mono cartridge specifically designed for playback of 78 records. In fact, using a stereo cartridge (stylus) on your 78s will surely damage the record grooves.

I have used a number of them, mostly from Ortofon and Grado, but there are others. The stylus tip size you will need depends on your 78 records and when they were made - sizes range from approx. 2 mils to 6.5 mils for old acoustic playback platters. You will probably be safe with a stylus tip size of 2.5-3.5 mils.

While 78s are anything but high fidelity, they can sound very good if used in the right system and you can get the turnover and rolloff correction (equalization curve) right. But IMO the main reason for playing 78s is not for the quality of the music, but because you will find a whole world of music that has never been recorded in any other format. Have fun.

The speeds of these old records actually varied somewhat. At some point they were standardized at 78, so having variable speed capability on your turntable for the earlier records is desirable.

There also wasn't a standard equalization curve at that time, or for early LP's, for that matter. There are phono preamps available (from Graham Slee, for example) to compensate for this.

Find a cartridge that takes a 3mil stylus. Pickering & Shure both had some. Other may have as well. The tip size is giving you the problem, not that it is a Pickering D750.