20 Best Cartridge For Turntable (2022 Updated)

I was skeptical that I’d hear a big difference by switching to this cartridge, however it did not disappoint! I find it very hard to A/B audio sources when there’s more than about a minute between A and B, but despite my further skepticism that I would, I did! I noticed a richer and more detailed sound.

The headshell supplied with my LP3 has extremely tiny leads, and I had to use tweezers. My advice would be to have just the ONE cup of coffee until after the surgery is complete. Only minor nit, sounding great and has me spinning vinyls every single day.

I’m really pleased with the performance of this cartridge. I’m certainly no expert, but my records sound great with it. My one complaint is that it doesn’t come with a set of wires to connect it to the headshell.

There’s no good reason why a new set shouldn’t be included with the cartridge when they are just as critical to good performance as the cartridge itself. Actually, I have another complaint but it is not related to this product: the wires from Audio-Technica cost $44! I made the mistake of ordering a set for $24 that came with a new headshell, but the contacts on the tonearm side of the headshell were too short to make solid contact and the wires were not of substantial enough materials to be of any use.

They metal-fatigued instantly. Still, there’s no good reason a set of wires should cost $44 in my mind.

I was running a decade old Stanton 500 cartridge on a Sherwood PM-9800 and after taking a macro photo and it looking in a state, decided to upgrade. This cartridge is well reviewed for a budget cartridge.

I recorded the same three records before and after swapping over to this one but to be honest, I am disappointed that I cannot hear any difference between an old/worn cartridge and this one! One thing I have noticed since using it, it is definitely a lot more sensitive to pops and crackles.

Shame really.

VM95c installed in a Stanton T. 62 M2 table(straight tonearm & direct drive). VM95c cart ( & stylus) replaced the stock cart ( i am assuming as i didnt own Table originally. ) Sound definitely improved.

As to what level of improvement , i cant be a great judge because Stanton T. 62 has no way of protractor use, for cart installation. Just purchased a Bang & Olufsen 1800 as well as a U-Turn orbit so i will soon have a better gauge on this pruppy dogs performance.

For your health!.

I ordereed a VM95C (conical 0. 6) directly from AT, with the headshell. It was well protected, and arrived in just a few days. The packaging was very nice! I do like the headshell design BTW. It has a little more mass than some others, and seems like it would be quite rigid.

My main curiosity was how the 0. 6 conical VM95 would stack-up to the Shure 0. 7 conical M44-G (the lighter tracking version of the M44-7). I have some new, still in the packages M44-G styli to compare with.

My understanding is, those are unfortunately now out of production. First impressions. Without break-in of either stylus, I compared some old favorite vinyl. An original pressing of “Crosby Stills and Nash” (the first album) went on the Technics SP-15 TT with an AT arm first.

This album has been abused a bit. Tracked many many times on GE VRII Broadcast cartridges, which are not very compliant, and track around 4 grams, as well as a variety Stanton 500A’s and Shure M44-7’s.

All of which are 0. 7 mil. It was clear that this new 0. 6 mil AT was finding some cleaner, less damaged vinyl to play for me. The over-all sound of the AT VM95c was somewhat more forward in the upper mid-range than the Shure.

Not enough to be annoying, but still noticeable. I was tracking both at 2 grams, which is the upper end of the Shure, but the middle of the (narrow) recommended range for the VM95c. On fresh, clean, not abused vinyl, the Shure seemed to hold a slight advantage in trackablity, but this was slight.

To make the comparison more fair, I increased the VTF on the VM95c to it’s max. With the VM95c at 2. 2 grams, the two seemed to track nearly identically on hotly mastered LP’s and 45’s. The suspension in the VM95c seems to have no problem running up at 2.

2 grams. It shows no signs of collapsing into it’s grip. No cueing damage was noted on styrene 45’s btw at 2. 2g. A very impressive cartridge for it’s price!.

Bought a superb stereo system from Richer Sounds a few years ago, managed to wear out the needle due to my “heavy handed” needle drop. Went to get a replacement on spec. no appointment, 2 hours later after some good advice, stereo sounding better than ever! Sound advice, sound staff, can’t fault it.

It’s a big “thumbs up” from me :-).

My previous Rega cartridge met with a catastrophe and needed replacing. Richer Sounds came up with the goods here, great quality sound, a smooth bass line, clarity all through the range and outstanding separation.

An excellent alternative to the Rega cartridge with no discernible shortfalls. The vinyl is back on track!.

Over rated product – play x2 12” records of the same track ( Blue Monday -New Order) & spin the same time on x2 Technics 1200 , 1 with the entry level Green Concorde Mix cartridge V the Club version – You’ll be lucky to hear a significant difference in sound quality , Maybe 20% better quality which does not justify the additional 75% $$$ outlay.

Yes , the spherical stylus sits more into groove of record & you do experience a more “expansive” analogue sound – NOT ENOUGH to justify the extra $$$$. Over rated as are Ortofon cartridges V a Shure or Old Skool 70s/ 80s cartridge.

I’ve used the Ortofon Concorde Pro for more then 10 years. I wanted to try something else. Sound is defenitely better then before. More details in the high and the bass sounds better. The volume is also louder.

A little bit more sensitive for scratches records. Some records skip where they don’t skip with the Ortofon Pro.

I really can’t believe the difference in the sound quality with these! I was using the Ortofon OM Pro s and thought they were good, but put theses bad boys in and OMG 😲. BEST UPGRADE EVER😜 Well worth spending that little extra for something that delivers this quality to your music.

Delivery was as expected from DJKIT! Always on time and packaging was superb. Great price too!.

Technically speaking, the “GLD” in the ad description is out of place as this is not the Gold edition of the MKII, but the MK Nought, if you will, the predecessor of the MKII. Arm settings are fiddly, but once it gets going, this turns out to be a well-balanced and reliable performer.

It doesn’t have the pitch slider of the MKII nor the quartz-lock direct drive, and its arm is noticeably different (resembling those of automatic or semi-automatic decks, which this is not). Its looks aren’t great either, as it is essentially a square box with a big bottom on rather ugly legs.

But the performance, almost forty years down the line, is still astonishing. With a heavier cartridge, it will provide a lot of pleasure, and notwithstanding audiophile gibberish, this table has much more to offer than your average “entry-level audiophile turntable”, which is likely to consist of a piece of MDF and some string and won’t be around in 2050.

If you want a direct drive and an alternative to the layman’s MKII and heirs, this is worth looking at, especially considering the ridiculous price. Don’t let its DJ pedigree scare you off. This is a solid state turntable.

Excellent! broke in for 6 hours and ridiculously skip resistant! Sounds great like Ortofon should. Although some say Concorde Carts can be slightly tricky to connect to the tone arm, compared to OM carts, I had no trouble connecting straight on to stanton str8 150 tone arm.

Works Perfect!.

Excellent another quality product from ortofon. The look and style of the Concorde electro is top notch. And with a range of colours there’s a choice for most people. Here’s to many hours of enjoyment.

After spending some time comparing this to my Shure V15 Type III with a Jico SAS NEO stylus, here are my thoughts. This is a great cart for heavy metal music. It tempers screaming vocals and guitars a bit so you can turn up the volume a bit more and not cause listener fatigue.

Bass drums are really, really tight, and have perfect tone and weight to them. My Shure cart is better for lighter rock, jazz, etc , because the vocals are warmer and are more forward in the soundstage.

Ill definitely keep and use both.

Goldring is a very musical phono cartridge. I use it on my Technics turntable and it works very well. I listen mostly to classical music and the 1006 is nice and smooth along the sonic spectrum. It is a very light cartridge and tracks very well.

I recommend this cartridge to all those still listening to LPs.

Great sounding cartridge, with excellent stereo channel spacing. Good high and low frequency response, with a strong midrange. The only two minor points are that the cartridge seems to hum slightly on my system despite each component being grounded (it is only noticeable between tracks and only just), and that the setup is a little more fiddly than other cartridges.

Well worth the money if you are upgrading from a cheaper cartridge (mine was a Ortofon VMS-3 MkII w/t spherical stylus).

The only reason this isn’t a one star review is because my Ortofon S-120’s worked and sounded great right up until I needed replacement tips. After less than a year and a half, no replacement tips for the S-120’s were available because Ortofon discontinued them already.

Therefore a year and a half after buying new needles, i’m basically being forced to more when I only need new styli. I go to Ortofon’s website and read that the “Concorde Scratch MKII” stylus is a usable replacement.

I order two of them from sweetwater, they fit and sound great. So a little over a year later I once again need new tips, so I order the same stylus from Sweetwater. The Concorde Scratch MKII’s and when I get them Ortofon had screwed me once again by re-designing these tips.

The don’t fit and I get no sound. Ortofon clearly has a business model of extracting as much money as humanly possible from customers by having 10 different models, charging way more than the superior Shure M44-7’s, and re-designing things every year in an attempt to get customers to replace their 300 dollar needles as much as possible.

They have scummy business practices and will never buy another Ortofon product ever again.

I was forced to try a new brand with Shure deciding to discontinue making cartridges and stylus. I’ve used the needles at a few gigs now and I’m really pleased with the results. The sound is great and the needles track well.

Really solid build quality and smooth affordable stylus. I really like hor the cartridge matches the sylus. The sound come out well and smooth for scratching as well.

I have a kind of old Technics SL-D20 Direct Drive turntable. I wanted a replacement for my obsolete Audio Technica AT311EP cartridge and purchased a new AT85EP cartridge. They are both P-mounts and I am very happy with the sound and quality of the AT85EP.

A recommended replacement stylus (alone) listed for nearly the cost of this cartridge/stylus. Also I had a bad previous experience with a replacement needle that skated over the first lp I tried to play.

It can be confusing finding replacement AT audio parts because Audio Technica sometimes discontinues an item without replacement. Hope my comments are helpful. The AT85EP works fine for me.

Great if you need a P mount cartridge. Not for use on standard two hole mount unless you already have the P adapter and screws, because this only comes with the cartridge and stylus. Sound is quite nice, full range with good treble, mid range, and nice bass.

No symbalance on the S’s or other artifacts that I can hear. Very low tracking weight of 1 1/2 grams. Be sure your turntable has the capability to track this light. Works great with my 44 year old Elac Micracord sold by Radio Shack with a P mount adapter, like the one in the picture that does not come with the cartridge.

P-mount cartridges are fairly rare nowadays. I was refurbishing an old Technics turntable, and at this price, there’s no reason to get anything less than this cartridge. (It cost only a couple of dollars more than the replacement stylus for the old cartridge.

) Sound quality from the elliptical stylus is excellent, comparable to much more expensive cartridges I have on better turntables. This does NOT come with the 1/2” mount adapter, which I didn’t need anyway.

Highly recommended if this is what you need, and WW Stereo has the best price around.

These are great!! This is my second pair, previous pair last 3 years with constant use.

Good. Price is average. But quality is good!

A++++ product

I never knew how different a name brand stylus could sound. Comparing a new Pfanstiehl to a used stylus was amazing too– no way a legit stylus is worth 75% more (and up!) in price than a new Pfanstiehl, i thought.

Well, this is no Intel v. AMD; No Apple v. Samsung– a legit SHURE stylus made a MAJOR difference. *highly recommended*.

Love this needle it brings out the clarity on all my records and when it’s set up right it performs very well! Remember the right weight and anti skate really makes a big difference! I won’t go for the generic ones that claim to be as good as Shure! If it’s not original why buy cheap and ruin your LP’s.

Thank You for reading!.

This is the exact replacement for my M92E cartridge. Together they renew my old (70’s) turntable to like new performance.

I bought this cartridge for an old REALISTIC Lab 2100 turntable. It was very easy to install. The quality of the sound is amazing. I was very impressed with the bass that I got from the cart, The range of highs and lows is very impressive.

I highly recommend this cartridge to any and all trying to keep they’re old turntables alive.

Perfect for use with vintage vinyl. Worn records tend to get sounding a little “brassy” at the high frequencies. This cartridge (or is it the carbon fiber infused plastic cantilever?) flattens out high frequencies just enough to filter out that brassiness.

All different types of styli have their optimal uses.

Cartridge & stylus work great. Not top of the line by any means, but you get what you pay for. Brought an old turntable back to life.

I manage a small community radio station and we’ve ordered these to replace existing cartridges on our Technics 1200 turntables. So far, I’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback from our DJs who play vinyl.

Plus, Audio-Technica is a solid company with great tech support if you ever need it, so it’s a brand I’m comfortable spending our dollars on.

great product although a bit fiddly to install as it doesn’t have inbuilt nuts like the VM95E that I replaced had.

clear crisp soundmids n topsbass is heavy just how i like itworth the money

I have an Exact 3 on an upgraded Planar 3 (new 24V motor, new OEM P3 hub, Cardas tags) and it sounds amazing. Details jump out, soundstage is really deep, musical timbre on acoustic instruments (guitar, piano, sax, drums/percussion, etc.

) is extremely accurate. I’m a retired recording engineer with 15 years experience and I’ve been a small “a” audiophile (not an obsessive, psueudo-scientific tweaker) for a good 40 of my 53 years. I’ve heard the best systems in the best rooms – recording studios, hi-end showrooms, and homes.

Without a doubt, the Exact 2 lives up to its name – it’s truly exact in its resolution of details. I’m quite happy with it. I’ve always agreed with Rega’s sensible engineering approach – balance the whole system; don’t overdo any single parameter to the detriment of others, and don’t indulge in esoteric designs which don’t contribute to sonic fidelity.

My cartridges have always been high quality without being extravagantly exotic – Ortofon X-1 MC, Ortofon X-3 MC (now the Turbo series), Rega Elys 2, and now the Rega Exact 2. My home system is the upgraded Planar 3, NAD 1300 Preamp (a benchmark, solid state phono stage), NAD 2100 Power Amp, and a pair of Rega Ella 2 loudspeakers.

The Exact 2 fits in very nicely, revealing very dramatic details from myvirgin, vintage vinyl collection.

The cartridge is very easy to fit on my P3, just remember which wires go where. Set up is easy too. It sounds amazing with a clean record. The reason I say that is that it picks up dust much more easily than my earlier Elys cartridge.

However, the sound is much more grounded, impactful and detailed than the Elys. Definitely worth the money.

I am using this cartridge because it came standard with my Rega Planar 3. It has great body and warmth but it is not the last word in detail or resolution. Sometimes the bass is a bit too punchy. But it is a great value, considering that it costs $200 with the Planar 3.

I will probably upgrade to the Exact or Ortofon Bronze when this cartridge wears out but I am satisfied with its performance most of the time.

Works well on the old 78 rpm records in inherited from my father in law. Chose this one because it was relatively cheap and because it used more tracking weight than others — helpful if you are using old warped records.

Fits perfectly in a few seconds to play 78rpm shellac standard play records. And then if you want to play a 45rpm super-vinyl “lp” next, you just change the head and again its the work of a couple of seconds.

As this cartridge has a slightly larger stylus at 3.0 mil there is less background noise when playing 78rpm records. All is good about this cartridge.

Having owned an AT Series 8 with a nude Shibata diamond ($250), I was not sure if I’d hear much of a difference. Wow was I wrong. Tracking the AT VM750SH on old records was like mining new music gold.

American Beauty MFSL 1st ed. sounded like a new record. The cartridge was tracking deep in the groove to where there was virtually no noise, just great music. The 30 db channel separation is most notable vs the 29 db in the Series 8.

I was planning to get a phono preamp w/ a variable gain setting ($200-$500). This was absolutely money better well spent on upgrading my cartridge. A great value to improve your Turntable sound.

Like PJ, noted in his review, I experienced a great deal of buyer’s remorse after submitting my order for this cartridge. And I considered not opening it and returning it. I’ve gone through quite a cartridge journey since getting back into vinyl more than a decade ago.

From MM cartridges under $100 to MC cartridges over 1K. I’ve gone back to MM cartridges because I’ve found you really need an expensive (2K or more) phono preamp to get the most out of MC cartridges.

I’ve tried many MM cartridges and had not been terribly pleased with two of the most expensive MM cartridges I’ve owned 2M Black and Clearaudio Maestro V2. So, I had found a couple of MM cartridges in the $300-$400 that I was very pleased with (Ortofon MC-3 Turbo & Nagaoka MP-150).

Several years ago I owned the AT150MLX and wanted to try the VM760SLC but again was buying it without hearing it and really worried about throwing away a good deal of money. I took the big leap and opened and mounted the cartridge on my tonearm and man am I gad I did.

I’ve found a new favorite cartridge! This cartridge delivers the best virtues of a different cartridges I’ve owned into one cartridge! I have found that cartridge I’ve been looking for. With a deep, non-muddled, powerful bass and very detailed, non-colored mids and highs this cartridge is a stunner.

I don’t have that burning desire to keep trying different cartridges anymore. I’ve found what I’m looking for.

What is really amazing about this cartridge is that it matches up very well with my new Rega P8 turntable, Falcon LS/3a speakers, and Line Magnetic tube amp. A system with that sort of resolution would immediately call out shortcomings in my cartridge.

There are no shortcomings. My audio dealer expected me to buy another Dynavector MC cart for the new table but instead I asked him to put this cart on from my old table (Project RPM). He was so pleasantly surprised (gobsmacked) at the quality of the sound that he decided to stock a few of these AT cartridges in his shop.

The boxy symmetrical shape of the Quintet lends itself well to aligning and setup of the cartridge in the tonearm shell. The Shibata needle and boron shank is tiny compared to the aluminium shanks and elliptical tips off my other MM cartridges.

Initial auditioning impressions was underwhelming but then I realised later than I was playing a favoutite artist but the recording was average. So I tried several of premium vinyl recordings of Supertramp and Al Stewart I owned and wow, the impact was immediate; the second, the needle touched down; the soundstage was wide, the vocals realistic , sibilant and clear, the bass tight and controlled, and treble extended and shimmering.

In summary, this cartridge will bring out the detail in your vinyl warts and all, good recordings will leave you esctastic, and if you feel flat listening to another, that vinyl is a poor recording. This personal opinion is after 6 hours of playtime.

Looking forward to more playtime with this cartridge.

I’ve been into music and hifi since I was kid and ‘seriously’ into hifi for the past 10 years. By ‘serious’ I mean an obsession with the quality of equipment and vinyl replay. The best cart I’ve owned to date was the Ortofon 2M Black moving magnet cartridge.

It just took my vinyl replay to a different level and has been a revelation for the past few years. So after substantial further upgrades to my turntable and a rather superb amplifier I decided to treat myself to the Ortofon Quintet Black.

The reason for this was because I’ve never owned a moving coil cartridge, it shares the same wonderful Shibata stylus profile as its sibling the 2M Black so i expected that it would portray the same sound / do the same wonderful things and it does.

(never thought I’d let my 2M Black go) After spending some good hours going through my fave and most familiar albums, the differences were not immediately obvious or night and day. Same wonderful retrieval of detail from the grooves (the Shibata stylus digs deep and extracts loads of the recorded musical information from the grooves giving a detailed presentation which i love).

However, once the Quintet B had some hours on it I could tell that it was able to separate out micro and macro detail of musical parts and instrumentation even more than the 2M Black and that is saying something.

I think that is partly down to that extra resolving delicacy I suspect you get from a good moving coil over a good moving magnet cartridge in general. My experience of the Ortofons I’ve had is that they are accurate rather than romantic or glossed over.

Both the flagship 2MB and Quintet B have been so and so each album sounds different ie: you get real insight into the actual recording which makes sense to me and is very addictive. The QB is a breeze to set up compared to the 2M Black due to its perfectly straight lines which is great.

The Ortofon Shibata stylus is very fussy about set up, particularly vta (height adjustment) and how it sits in the groove so a tonearm with easy vta adjust is a big plus with these carts. My tonearm has ‘on the fly vta’ adjust and so I dial it in ever so carefully by ear once all other arm / cart / stylus adjustments have been done.

By the way, I’d read from other users that the Quintet B likes a slightly negative rake (arm slightly tail down), which is precisely where I have found the sweet spot to be. You’ll be rewarded for careful and meticulous set up with a cart that will play the music in a way that can only be described as musical and right.

Detailed, airy, lifelike, holographic, with great separation of the musical parts, pretty much like the 2M Black. The QB’s bass weight I would say is maybe a little less than the 2MB’s BUT it’s bass tone is more tuneful and accurate, you can tell what type of bass is being played rather than just a deep frequency portrayal of a bass note which is what most cartridges tend to do in my experience.

The QB takes things to that next notch up in terms of ‘audiophile’ accuracy. If you want a weighty and / or romantic sound then look elsewhere. If you want accuracy and a cart that plays with a sense of rightness then look no further.

The only cart I will have after this is the big brother of all the Shibata clad Ortofons which is the Cadenza Black, simply because it would be the same but better again. And so it should be at 1750 which is high praise for the Quintet Black at 650 – no wonder it has been called ‘an audiophile bargain’ I highly recommend this cart – it is a class performer and brings a BIG smile to my face !.

The Ortofon Quintet Blue is over all amazing. It produces a warm, detailed and robust musical sound. I can tell it’s tracking every groove of the records and extracting every bit of information. I’m still blown away every time I listen to my records.

I’m now a big Ortofon fan. I highly recommend this cartridge.