In over my head


Howdy.

I went all in on a couple pieces, and am now realizing I'm in over my head. I don't know (yet) the technicalities of matching cartridge to tonearm. Much less proper setup. Reading a few ads, reviews, some work better together than others.

I've got 2 turntable setups slowly coming together. No cartridges at the moment. Amps and speakers are future works.

47 Labs Shikagura phono stage
Denon AVR 3000 and/or
Onkyo A 9555
80's era Advent 2 ways, Infinity oversized bookshelf speakers.

The turntable setups:
Michell Gyro with SME 309 tonearm.
AR XA in walnut plinth. Heavily modded Rega 250 tonearm.
The AR will probably go in my office, The Michell Gyro at home.

Here's the deal: I need to move in the "Econophile" realm.
I've got a couple grand to finish with at the moment. More in the future, but the budget is tight at the moment.
I know new amps, speakers are requiered to touch the hem of great sound, but this is what I've got to work with at the moment.

I need some cartridge recommendations for the above. Figure less than 500.00 for the AR/XA Rega 250 set up, and 1500.00 for the Gyro/SME setup. The money may seem a bit silly given the supporting components. Feel free to offer Econophile solutions where needed.

In Music, I'm a rock head that easily goes to accoustic. I love the timbre, resonance of guitar, piano. I love vocals, but tend to pay more attention to instrumental passages. Figure Enya to Black Flag. Pre Rollins.

Ancilories are Nakamichi cassete, Phillips DCC. Wish that would have panned out.

Any cartridge reccomendations for the above systems?

Mark
benchrat
Even Grado's least expensive cartridge sounds good. Ditto for the Denon 103. See Zu Audio's tweak of the 103 while you're at it.
Check out the current issue of The Absolute Sound. There's an excellent excerpt from Robert Harley's book on just this subject.
I highly recommend a Dynavector 10X5 for the AR setup. This is a great budget cart. for <$500. Take note that its a high-output MC so try and get a phono stage with a decent amount of gain.
Denon 103. Affordable (103 at $200, 103R $300, maybe less). They sound great for the $ and you can upgrade later if you think another $1k is necessary.
Check eBay and buy new at that price.
Agree with a couple of the posters here

Since you like rock - the denon 103 or 103r should go well with the Gyro/SME combo.