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Phono cartridge advice

My turntable is a Garrard 401 in skeletal plinth, fitted with an SME3009 series 2 imp arm (fixed shell) with a Shure V15vxmr cartridge and a Trichord Dino MM/MC phono stage.  The stylus on the V15 was broken my cleaner!  My question is should I shell out on a new Japanese Jico stylus (which has had very good reviews) as Shure no longer make this stylus, or should I get a new cartridge, if so, what?  I have been looking at the Denon DL110 moving coil, but how will it compare to the V15vxmr?  The Jico stylus is very expensive  (£350GBP) so the Denon cartridge would save me a few pounds but I don't want to be disappointed.  Because I have a good phono stage, I could consider a more expensive lower output MC cartridge but if the cost is approaching that of the Jico stylus I may as well just buy one of those and continue with the V15. So, in short, do I replace the stylus or will the Denon cartridge be a better bet and save me money ... or is there another MC cart that would work well in the SME arm and offer an improvement over the Shure?  Thanks in advance for any help. Les.
lesadams

Showing 1 response by nmmusicman

nmmusicman
278 posts
 
While I agree with the AT150MLX recommendation in that its tracking ability is superb, one needs a tonearm that can accommodate very fine adjustments in all parameters to get the best from its MicroLine stylus.

Having lived with a AT150ANV fitted with a MLX stylus for a few years, it has become an involved love affair in that the MicroLine stylus needs a close hand in fine tuning if every album is to sound its absolute best and a VPI unipivot tonearm accommodates this very well.

A lesser extreme stylus profile might be better for those that want to not be constantly adjusting azimuth/SRA because the MicroLine stylus will quickly expose difference's in pressing attributes but when it's dialed in for a particular record, the results are magical!
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