Suggestions for cartridges for Rega P8

I had a Rega P8.  I thought the Rega cartridges were fine, until one broke from a defect.  I talked to a Rega dealer in upstate NY, who said that they recommend Linn cartridges for Rega, and many in their local audiophile club have used Linn.  I bought the Linn Krystal, and was quite pleased, as apparently is a plug in replacement for Rega cartridges, and doesn’t required shims, etc.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Linn Krystal, and thought it was a nice step up from the Rega cartridges .  Just my .02

A long time ago, I had a Linn cartridge and liked it. How was the stylus life Doc?

I don’t know: after hearing the marked improvement in SQ with the Linn Kristal (bought from Accent Hifi in upstate NY), I upgraded my table, tonearm, and cartridge!  In short, that was the gateway purchase for me that got me spending stupid amounts of money on my analog setup: was it the best or worst purchase of my audiophile career?  Depends on your perspective!

Soko, You wrote, "light weight to match well with the Rega RB880 arm - I am not interested in any tweaks to have to add weight to the arm or headshell to accommodate admittedly unlimited choices, although if I have to use a spacer for the non VTA arm, that's OK"

You have been around here a long time, so I assume you know that it is the compliance of the cartridge, not its weight, that is the major determinant of matching any new cartridge to your existing tonearm. These days most cartridges weigh about the same, give or take a few grams. However, compliance can be all over the place, depending especially on whether the cartridge is MM (often very high compliance), MI, or LOMC (usually low and sometimes very low compliance).

So @lewm -is my Rega RB880 high or low compliance? Also what about medium output MC carts like my VDH?

@OP From experience, the Frog is a worthwhile upgrade overt the MC One. The one thing with VdH cartridges is that they are fussy about VTA, but I'm sure you have that sorted. If you want a change, the Hana Umami Blue is outstanding. It's more robust sounding than the Frog, so if your taste leans more to electrified music, it's a good choice. However, I don't think you will better VdH for running costs in terms of stylus life and service/replacement.

Tonearms don’t have “compliance” that figures into the equation for resonant frequency. Tonearms have “effective mass” . Resonant frequency is determined by cartridge compliance and tonearm effective mass. Because the cartridge body weight adds to effective mass, and it’s situated over the cantilever, you just add cartridge weight to tonearm effective mass in calculating Fr. And I have no idea about the RB880. Rega can tell you.

@sokogear

This is what you need. Determine your tonearm effective mass and you are good to go.

https://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge_resonance_evaluator.php

I recently acquired a Hana Umami Red cartridge, and right out of the box it improved my system by about 25%, and it needs over 100 hours of breaking in; it replaced Clearaudio's top-of-the-line MM cartridge, the $2K Charisma II. The Hana is twice as expensive, yes, but worth every penny of that; the difference is enormous; I want to listen to all my records all over again with this cart.... 

Why Not, One Can have the Cartridge and the Overhaul down the line for a combined $2.1K quite a few thousand hours on the table with a cutting edge Cart’ for not too much monies.

Buying this Cart’ used and taking up the rebuild down the line, will be great VFM if the first purchase is a very good sample.

https://audioxpress.com/news/nagaoka-unveils-mp-700-moving-permalloy-cartridge

"  Just fitted a Nagaoka MP700. Very impressed so far, it gives little or nothing away in air and space to my Koetsu, which is a surprise, with the added MM drive in the bass. The Koetsu has a little more detail in the bass by comparison, but not a great deal in it. Only has about an hour on it so far, so hopefully will get even better. I was hoping for good things, but how good it actually is was a real surprise. " 

Any of the Lyra carts are medium compliance  I believe

i I got a Kleos SL open box and it has blown my mind mi still have the Delos I replaced with approximately 300 hours on it and it’s great too

Nobody but @drbond is saying whether they are using (or have used) a P8 or it's provided arm, the RB880.

@yoyoyaya - interstingly enough, when the MC One Special was on my Rega P5, the guy put a spacer in, but when I moved it to the P8, the guy I bought the P8 from took the spacer out. When I replaced the MC one with a new one, there was no conversation about using a spacer.

@OP For VdH, you want the horizontal strakes on the side of the cartridge to be about parallel with the surface of the record. Roy Gandy has some persuasive arguments as to why VTA doesn't matter, but I'm not totally convinced. It matters less than a lot of people say but it does have an effect on sound quality.

Conversation jumped from compliance and effective mass to VTA, in one fell swoop. So far as resonant frequency goes, if you use a calculator on the internet be sure to add the weight of the new cartridge to the base value for tonearm effective mass. Technically you should also add the weight of any mounting hardware but it makes little difference.

@yoyoyaya  -I’ve seen that video. It is not surprising since Rega doesn’t have VTA adjustment capabilities. They do talk about spacers, which I believe they sell. Sounds to me like a light arm like the RB880 works best with a high compliance cartridge. 

Nobody has mentioned stylus anywhere close to VDH, so it will probably come down to a maintenance on mine, replacing mine, or splurging on a Frog. Hopefully some other options are presented.

@OP There is a much more extensive white paper from Rega on the subject. The RB 880 is low effective mass and VdHs are high compliance for MCs - so a good match.

Regarding VdH service - VdH will replace the cartridge suspension  - not just the stylus, so the cartridges have a long lifespan.

Does Mr Gandy really claim that VTA doesn’t matter?

Does Mr Gandy really claim that VTA doesn’t matter?

No he doesn't.

@lewm - He just doesn’t think VTA is a major deal especially with long tonearms. Watch his video, he’s smart, and a brilliant businessman.

I also used an MC1 (silver body low output) for decades even had it rebuilt twice but eventually it was time to replace it. After a few different carts I ended up on a Sumiko Pear wood celebration 2, Newer version now. It has most of the detail and sound of the VDH with better bass and midrange. I would recommend Sumiko carts as a suggestion. Frog would be great if you can find one, VDH are getting harder to find now, I would look used and get it rebuilt asap before AJ is no longer able to do the work.