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Still looking for a new Moving Coil Cartridge

I noticed that Music Direct has 20% off cartridge sale on select cartridges. I am still using a ZU/Denon DL103 MC cartridge Series 1 with the cartridges tightest tolerances. I purchased it here from “Audiofiel” back in 2010 and have used it sparingly since. I had been using a Dynavector DV20XL cartridge which I bought a couple of years ago but my 6 yo nephew destroyed it (that’s another story) so I am back to the ZU/Denon.

My table is a Technics SL1200G which I truly love. I have been looking at the Hana Low out put MC cartridges. I am interested in the low output “S” series as the $600.00 price is right where I want to be. Now, the million dollar questions: I listen to 95% 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Rock and want whatever cartridge I purchase to make the records sound good without excessive surface noise. Will the Hana S be up to the task? My Mac C2500 tube preamp has cartridge loading from 50 ohms up to 1000 ohms so I should be ok. I just want to be sure this cartridge will be very musical and full bodied sound. I do no want a thin sound. So there you have it, yay or neigh?

128x128stereo5
stereo5's avatar
stereo5 OP
6,264 posts
 

@knownothing ,   Thank you very much for the tip on Elusive Disc.  I haven't been to that site in years, forgot about them.  Not a big fan of the Ortofon 2M Black but the AT cartridges look promising.

uncleang
107 posts
 

@stereo5 

until it got ruined by a curious little boy.

 

Back in the late 80's another curious 6 year old boy trashed my Micro Seiki LC-80w MC cart.  

His Mom said at the time "I'm not surprised he wanted to play with it..... he has one just like it at home".

westcoastaudiophile
233 posts
 

@stereo5 why MC in the first place? MC requires to invest a lot of $$ in SUT, phono-pre etc, and uses higher track force g settings (2g MC vs 1g MM).

if you have $$ to spend, check Phasemation PP-200 MC cart

stereo5's avatar
stereo5 OP
6,264 posts
 

Mostly because I have a very excellent MC phono pre built into my Mac C2500 tube preamp.  I decided to go with a MM phono cartridge and purchased an AT VM540 cartridge.  It came in around $300 on a factory mounted headshell.  My Rock records really sing now and I couldn’t be happier.  Thank you and everyone else that contributed to this thread. 

newfzx7
36 posts
 

I just read through this thread and was surprised to see that you ended up with a 540ML. As I was going through I kept thinking that's what you need.

I'm sure this cart gets ignored just because of its price. I can enjoy all my records with it, with others carts there were albums that I would not listen to, including with an MP-500 that I currently have on my SL1200gr.

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