compliance

You have a nice tonearm with dynamic damping, perfect for mid and high-ish compliance  cartridges. 

You forgot to mention your cartridges, or do you think they are all the same if they are high compliance (or low)? 

Why? I wouldn’t touch Technics original rubby ball bearings! 

But Technics cartridges almost always have suspension issue, you need a better cartridge for sure. 

Tracking force at 1g - 1.75 g grange is typical for all those vintage MM.

Vintage vinyl from that era is better than new (if condition is fine), not sure why you blame vinyl condition, you must have some mint- copies to check. 

Hi-Fi News Test LP is what you need.

Nice, my advice is to upgrade your cartridge with something like AT-ML170, Grace LEVEL II, Victor X1II, Stanton SC-100 WOS, Pickering XSV/5000 .... They are all much better than your technics cartridge. 

Keep your horror stories for yourself @lewm if you don’t owm any of those. And BTW the OP cartridge is Technics MM from the 70’s (notorious for softened suspension).

It’s been discussed million times, if you want to try some of the best MM (in perfect condition) from my museum I will be happy to help, you must get rid of this phobia, seriously.


If you travel to Japan you should know it’s a different world when it comes to condition of the rare stuff, even rare records from the 70’s in Japan are like new while in the USA they are VG- with cut corner or saw cut or drill hole in the sleeve. It’s a cultural thing! I would’t buy used cartridge from USA to be honest (and some of them are indeed impossible to find in USA). But I have huge collection of mint cartridges from Japan (those audiophiles know how to handle them), we are talking about Japanese cartridges mostly, but even American Stanton or Pickering are still mint or nos/unused if they are from Japanese collector/audiophile. They are crazy about condition like no other nation (imo) amd I’m excited about it. Better have some Japanese connection to get an access to real gems.

I have all the rarest Technics cartridges, the last I received few month ago is p205 mk4 (NOS), I’m still a bit afraid to try it.

Before this NOS sample I had the 205c mk4 (6 of them), 205c mk3 (4 of them), 100c mk3 (two of them). I had an original (used, NOS), also I had Axel’s rebuild versions etc.

Technics are THE MOST problematic cartridges ever! Rubber damper is weak, always too soft, the worst choice of cartridge! I’m telling you based on my own experience, and I have NOS EPA-100 tonearm and even that mega rare EPA-100 mkII right now.

I like Technics tonearms and turntables more than Technics cartridges.
Because you have to spend so much money to find one good sample out of 25 samples and even then suspension will collapse soon (and no one can repair it now).

You Technics cartridge is not even close to the best models like mk4, so the best you can do is to find much better cartridge. Stanton or Pickering are the best for the money, under $450 you can find killer cartridge from top of the line range of models.

Any cartridges I have mentioned before in another post are much better than Technics, they don’t have any single problem with damper (just better design that can last forever). They are fantastic performers (advanced cantilever and stylus tip, coil wire... everything).

So many people were brainwashed by that old MM thread, but Technics appeared to be the worst cartridge and even the OP of that old thread was using ONLY refurbished samples, not the original samples. Technics top model cost over $2k and then you need personal relations with Van Den Hul and abother $1k if he will be able to rebuild it. At the same time a $700 cartridge from another manufacturer can perform better, so go figure.

A person who advocate for a cartridge without even mentioning that it will work only after very expensive rebuild made by VdH is not a trust worthy source to take his opinion seriously. Beware! 

For low impedance version you need SUT or High Gain MC phono stage, I sold this cartridge long time ago when I compared it to Stanton Signature model CS-100 (it was much better in my system).

Now I have low impedance Pickering XLZ-4500 and XLZ-7500.

I bought original NOS pickering stylus not so long ago, it was D4000 new in the box. 

If you want your Stanton to be inspected or rebuild emal to Expert Stylus - they are the best for this cartridge and GBP exchange rate is low now. 

Your Stanton will never perform as original Stereohedron if you will rebuild it, you need an original stylus with Stereohedron tip. When manufacturer is using aluminum cantilever the only benefit of this cantilever is press-fit diamond. When someone glue a new tip to aluminum cantilever it’s nonsense. So in case with aluminum you need a whole new cantilever with factory press-fit diamond.

If you want to rebuild then you have to send it to UK (Expert Stylus & Co) for Paratrace stylus tip. This company is very old and now specialized in Stanton service. Ask them: info@expertstylus.co.uk

You can’t transplant JICO SAS into Technics EPC-100 series, Jico is for 205 series and JICO SAS will cost you more than a better cartridge or very close to it. I’ve been using JICO SAS (BORON) long time ago on my 205c mk3.

In JAPAN ONLY Jico can retip Technics P-Mount mk4 series without replacing original Boron Pipe cantilever, but it’s for locals only (I have a bill from Jico for this job).

On Stanton you can use Pickering stylus, you need an original stylus.
If your model is Low Impedance then stylus from High Impedance is not compatible as far as I know.

The whole mess up with Technics cartridges is like knocking to the closed door or to a brick wall. You can simply use another enter quickly (another high-end MM cartridge).

My advice: stay away from any retipped or refurbished cartridges, it’s just a waste of time and money for nothing. Original cartridge (if it’s a good one) killing it!

The benefits of original Technics (impossible to find in good condition) is Boron Pipe cantilever and very low tip mass. Audio-Technics AT-ML180 has extremely low tip mass and hollow pipe boron (or beryllium) cantilever and MicroLine stylus. Grace LEVEL II BR/MR comes with Boron Pipe Cantilever and Micro Ridge Stylus! Those two cartridges are superior to original Technics for sure, I tried them all (original, not rebuilded sh**ty).

AKG cartridges as explained by our respected member Nandric is another cartridge notorious for suspension problem. AKG took it back from the dealers/retailers and even destroyed the whole bunch of cartridges because of this issue (and their reputation) ! 

When someone recommend cartridges that are internationally renowned for serious technical issues (as suspension problems) I believe everything from such person must be ignored and can't be taken seriously if you don't want to loose money. None of us have personal relations with Van Den Hul and very few of us have unlimited amount of money to fix defective cartridges.

The problem with the most expensive Technics cartridges, even if they are sealed NOS, is rubber damper, I don't know any other cartridge (and I owned so many) with the same problem! And I learned this myself buying those Technics cartridges over the years. This is clearly the worst vintage cartridge ever, because of this issue with softened suspension. But it was so hardly promoted on audiogon so people think it's perfect cartridge, but it's not !!! If you read caferully between the lines in that old MM thread, those working samples were refurbished by VdH (the most expensive expensive service on the planet earth). On some other samples the whole cantilever/damper was transplanted from another cartridges like Nagaoka by Axel in Germany. 

I know who sold refurbished cartridges without even warning his customers about third party parts (fake cantilever) inside these cartridges.This is disgusting! I even bought such cartridges myself few times (I was a victim) ... Some other audiogon members recently told me about similar issues privately (when a seller did not tell anything about refurbishing and sold it as original, you'd better not know who was the seller).  

There is a huge difference between an ORIGINAL working cartridge and REFURBISHED cartridge. Especially when it comes to very special and very expensive vintage MM cartridges.