Suggestions for budget phono cartridge

ben62670

My Shure 97xE is coming along nicely. I forgot a record was playing. No pops, clicks...just nice smooth sound. I have about 40hrs on it.

Dawgfish

Zitro wrote: »

Well, I called needledoctor and they actually recommended the Ortofon OM10 over the Shure, although he agreed the Shure was a good one. He found the Ortofon to be a more detailed cart. Anyone have experience with this cart? It's only $69, which is under the budget of about $80 that I gave him.

I have an OM10 on my backup ProJect 1.2 table. It's not a bad sounding cart at all. It is very warm sounding and has LOTS of bass. The cool thing about the OM series cartridges is you can upgrade the performance by buying the needle from the higher models in the OM series and the needles are very easy to replace or swap out. Thus you can put the OM15, 20, 30, or the top of the OM line 40 needle on the OM-10 and you essentially have the same model cart as the needle you put on it was designed for (all OM carts use the same body, the difference in performance is due to the needle). This makes it very easy to upgrade over time as your budget allows it without having to realign your cart, or buy new headshells for the new carts.

When I bought the Project table, the OM-30 needle was on the cart and the seller gave me a spare OM-10 needle. He said he used the OM-10 needle on records that were not in that great shape so he wouldn't damage the OM-30 needle. The table sounded outstanding with the OM-30 needle on the cart. The difference in detail between the OM-30 needle and OM-10 needle is night and day. The overall sound is still the same between the needles (warm with lots of bass), but you really pickup detail as you go up the food chain needle wise with the OM series. Unfortunately I damaged my OM-30 in a terrible cleaning accident ;-), and this is why I am running the OM-10 needle currently. I hope to replace the OM-30 needle soon (and I'm leaning towards going with the OM-40 needle). FYI, LP gear makes their own in-house replacement needles for the OM series, which are much cheaper than the original equipment Ortofon needles and are supposed to have a higher quality diamond to boot.

I have also used the M97 on my main table, a pretty heavily modified Technics SL-1200 MK2. The M97 is just a good all around cartridge. It is solid in the lows, mids, and highs, has good detail, good imaging, and good soundstage. It does everything good and nothing bad. This and it 's great price, are what make it such an outstanding value. I have since upgraded to the DL-160 and like the 160 better. The 160 is just more involving with music and it translates the feel and emotion of music better than the M97 if that makes any since.

Between the M97 and the OM-10, that's a tough decision. They are both really good cartidges. I feel the M97 is probably the better all around cartridge over the OM-10. The highs are definitely better on the M97 than the OM-10, but the OM-10 has superior bass. The M97 is the smoother of the two. Here's the kicker though, if I had my choice between these two cartidges, I would go with the OM-10. While I do feel the M97 is superior to the OM-10 in their stock form, the OM-10 is much easier to upgrade and has the potential to have substantially higher performance than the M97 going down the road. There was no contest to me in my system between the OM-30 and M97. THe OM-30 was superior in almost every way. To make a long story short, go with the OM-10, upgrade down the road to the LP Gear OM-30 or OM-40 replacement needle and don't look back. Sorry for the long winded response, but I hope this helps.

Steve

thsmith

^^^^+1

I was betting Neddledoc would recommend OM10 for reasons stated above but Dawg and Hearing beat me to it.

mjcmt

Zitro wrote: »

I am looking for a good budget cartridge, less than $100 out the door. All arrows seem to be pointing to the Shure M97xE, which can be had for about $80 shipped, maybe less. However, before I pull the trigger on this cart, I wanted to know if there was something possibly better out there in the same price bracket. Associated equipment is a JA Michell GyroDec w/ Rega RB300 tonearm.

I nominate the Ortofon OM10 for less than $80
Dynamic, clear, articulate, superb tracking, high compliance, and an excellent upgrade path by changing stylus to OM20, 30, 40 while retaining the same cartridge body. Superb!

shack

I also have an Ortofon OM10. I picked one up on sale for around $60 a year or so ago and find it to be an excellent cart...especially for the price I paid.

erniejade

WOW did ortofon drop the prices on them? I thought a year or 2 ago the om10 was 120-150


Having said that, I have a om5 and a om 20. ( the 20 was a 10 and then upgraded the needel to a 20 ) It is a solid cart for the $.

madmax

Zitro wrote: »

Ugh, got thrown a curveball...David (my girlfriends dad) just informed me that he has a cart he can lend me until I get my own...because my money is needed elsewhere since apparently the GyroDec has an issue with the power supply and won't power up. I have to get it fixed . Do you guys think a general electrician should be able to fix what it is? David has no idea what's wrong with it.

I'm somewhat familiar with the motor, some of the older models get gummed up. Does the light on the power supply come on? If need be I can look at it for you, I'm an EE and have had mine apart to clean up and check out. Also I can tell you the fuse on the power supply can be tripped easily, check that out. The motor is hard to lubricate but can be. I use a very light grade MobileOne synthetic for both the platter bearing and the motor.
madmax

shack

erniejade wrote: »

WOW did ortofon drop the prices on them? I thought a year or 2 ago the om10 was 120-150


Having said that, I have a om5 and a om 20. ( the 20 was a 10 and then upgraded the needel to a 20 ) It is a solid cart for the $.

Are you sure? It was reg price $69 when I bought mine a year or so ago from Needle Doctor...and still is...

http://www.needledoctor.com/s.nl/it.A/id.274/.f?sc=7&category=971

mjcmt

If anyone can pick up the used Super OM cartridge it is supposed to have better internal guts, and uses same stylus as regular the current regular OM. I use the Super OM and I've not compared it, but I'm wondering if the Super OM is closer to the newer 2M. I'd like to know but haven't had the luxury to listen to the 2M.

Zitro

madmax wrote: »

I'm somewhat familiar with the motor, some of the older models get gummed up. Does the light on the power supply come on? If need be I can look at it for you, I'm an EE and have had mine apart to clean up and check out. Also I can tell you the fuse on the power supply can be tripped easily, check that out. The motor is hard to lubricate but can be. I use a very light grade MobileOne synthetic for both the platter bearing and the motor.
madmax

I'm not sure, the TT is not actually in my possession yet; its still with David 2 hours away. I'll ask him if the light comes on. When I go visit him a couple weeks I can open it and take some pics, then maybe you can visually see what the issue might be. Thanks for your help. I just hope it's something easily fixed, because there is no way I can afford a new power supply or motor for that thing anytime soon.

madmax

Besides what I mentioned above do this: with the motor belt not attached spin the pully. With a good hard twist it should spin on its own for a few seconds. If it does not then it is too gummed up. If this is the case you can spray WD40 at the bottom of the pully and hope it loosens up. If it does then take some mobil one oil and drip in there periodically. Don't take the motor apart if you don't have to. Besides, you would have to take it completely apart to get to the bearing in question and believe me, you don't want to, its a real pain.