Beer of the Bass Posted February 1, 2020 Share Posted February 1, 2020 I'm not a massive hi-fi enthusiast, but have and listen to quite a bit of vinyl. I have an old 70s Pioneer Pl-11 turntable that I've had for a long time, with the original cartridge. I had a few NOS styli that I picked up a few years ago, but I've just put my last spare on, and it doesn't seem to be a very easy replacement to find now. So, would it be worth thinking about a new cartridge rather than looking around for more replacement styli for the old Pioneer cartridge? And if I did, what's OK and not too expensive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt P Posted February 1, 2020 Share Posted February 1, 2020 You say that it's the original cartridge, do you know the make and model, there are still very good quality styli being made for certain cartridges. (the Jico SAS ones are supposed to be excellent) if a quality stylus is not available then I would suggest a new cartridge, modern ones have come a fair way since the 70's. what would you class as not too expensive? personally i'm running a Ortofon 2M red on one turntable and a Rega Carbon on the other, the Ortofon is around the 100 quid mark and many enthusiasts would class that as budget, the rega is under 30 quid and it is my first choice for resurrecting old turntables as it has surprisingly good performance. i am interested in the new grado E cartridges as well, the E3 is quite tempting. https://www.hifix.co.uk/ortofon-2m-red-moving-magnet-cartridge https://www.hifix.co.uk/rega-carbon-cartridge https://www.juno.co.uk/products/goldring-e3-moving-magnet-cartridge-stylus-eu/661196-01/?currency=GBP&flt=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4NTxBRDxARIsAHyp6gDfhIwI_GVpDb8ewxTPw1JA11cdlOi7YL5MwSV0LcTOOTL7lIcZgtAaArqUEALw_wcB Matt 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted February 1, 2020 Author Share Posted February 1, 2020 I'm presuming that the cartridge is the original; I can't see any markings on it, but the styli that fit are labelled as a replacement for the Pioneer PN10/11/14/15/20 cartridges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted February 1, 2020 Share Posted February 1, 2020 All questions answered over on vinyl engine... https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=84592 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt P Posted February 1, 2020 Share Posted February 1, 2020 I would suggest that a new cartridge would be the best bet, the main question is how much you want to spend now. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueMoon Posted February 1, 2020 Share Posted February 1, 2020 This ^^^^^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted February 1, 2020 Author Share Posted February 1, 2020 3 hours ago, Matt P said: I would suggest that a new cartridge would be the best bet, the main question is how much you want to spend now. Matt I'd definitely be looking sub £100, both in terms of what I can sensibly spend at the moment, and what I'd be willing to put into this old turntable. So I could certainly look into some of the suggestions here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt P Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 I'd go for the rega carbon, if you read through the reviews they struggle to find much bad to say against it, from my own experience of fitting them to a few different turntables I have to agree, I fitted one to a 70's trio turntable as a stopgap solution whilst the owner saved for a new turntable and 4 years later he is still using the trio/rega set up and loving it, the money he was saving has been spent on more records. Matt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 Yep, it looks like the Carbon would fit the bill. The Audio Technica AT95E mentioned in the linked thread falls into a similar price bracket too, so I'll do some searching around for opinions on those two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naxos10 Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 You could look at the Goldring E3 or Nagaoka MP110 as well. Both are well rated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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