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Need help with phono cartridge selection

Hello all,

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I am finally getting around to upgrading my phono cartridge and looking for some advice. I mostly listen to rock and jazz using the following setup:

Receiver - denon AVR 4306
Speakers - Polk audio 
Record player - Pioneer PL-630 with medium mass arm.

With all the reading I have done I am in information overload and not sure which direction to go. Current budget is roughly 500 or less. 

Current cartridge considerations:
Denon dl-110
Ortofon om20
Ortofon 2m Bronze
Nagaoka mp-200 or the 150
AT ML540ML
AT VM95E or ML
Hana EH
I am open to other suggestions as well 

Again, I am new at this so I appreciate your patience and your help. 

Theo.

theo71

Showing 1 response by deadhead1000

deadhead1000's avatar
deadhead1000
711 posts
 

The Denon in my opinion. Although that table was made back then for cartridges like Shure, Stanton and Audio Technica, so the AT models should be good also. I always thought the AT carts were a bit tilted brighter - if you like that or your speakers are weak at the top end, then the AT are a really good fit. The Hana is a great cartridge, but not the best match for the table. 

Again, this is just my opinion and experience. I did own a PL500 series (I don't remember the exact model number) and used a shure M97 and a V15, but those carts are long gone, except as used/remanufactored.

Let us know what you end up getting!

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