Ah, that’s why it sounds so good for £500… Because it’s a £700 cart. 
2 Likes
All carts sound the same. The difference is in your phono cabling.
5 Likes
6 Likes
Still, nice to know your ears can hear the quality even though the box says the cart is a (relative) cheapie.
VB
1 Like
What phono stage did you plug it into? It’s a low output MC whereas the 2500 is MM. 
Or, if you believe Goldring, and why wouldn’t you, it’s a moving iron design…
1 Like
Level matched comparisons ftw.
Correct, my mistake (and embarrassment, since I have one!) . Made by Nagaoka, I believe. Still suitable for MM phono.
Happy to swap for a Legacy 
1 Like
Benz MC silver homc cough
2M black?
I agree. Shocking.
1 Like
£50 Nagaoka better in every way.
1 Like
Or just get another MC with an SUT…
Was reading somewhere that nagaoka boron stylus only last roughly 150-250 hours
Surely this is utter plop?
1 Like
It’s plop. I used Nag MP-200/500 for years. I would swap out the stylus after two years, which is a lot more than 250 hours of listening for me. In fact, Allan @spacehopper is still using the MP-200 styli I sent to him. I never really noticed a drop off in sound before I changed a needle. It was more that I felt I ought to be changing it for the sake of my records.
3 Likes
Sorry chaps not long home from work.
Gareth sent me his Nag 200 with the stylus he had been using and a spare. I’ve been using it for about a month with a lot of hours on it already and it still sounds superb. 
2 Likes
Surprised no one mentioned the Audio Technica AT150MLX. Not being made anymore, but you can get 'em for under £500. Best MM I’ve ever heard. I have one spare stylus now and when it’s gone, I don’t know what I’ll do; probably sell my vinyl to pay for another one …oh, hang on a minute…
The cart body also takes a few other styli that are still in production - like the VM740ML (microlinear) and VM750SH (shibata)
1 Like
Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome.
1 Like
Hiya Nick,
Welcome on board. A really weird place, but populated by (mostly) nice people.
1 Like
Garrott P77i is another excellent cartridge - Aus $ 690 - circa £385 plus import and VAT
Although it is based on a similar body to the earlier A&R P77, apparently the generator assembly has been tweaked to improve it significantly. I have one and it sounds excellent - highly rated by Rauliregas on this massive thread on Audiogon (over 20 million views), who rates this as being of the very best MM cartridges ever made
"If you ask me which one is the best I can tell you that this will be a very hard “ call “ an almost impossible to decide, I think that I can make a difference between the very good ones and the stellar ones where IMHO the next cartridges belongs to this group:
Audio Technica ATML 170 and 180 OCC, Grado The Amber Tribute, Grace Ruby, Garrot P77, Nagaoka MP-50 Super, B&O MMC2 and MMC20CL, AKG P8ES SuperNova, Reson Reca ,Astatic MF-100 and Stanton LZS 981."