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For a long time now I've been using Numark Groovetools. I know I know. Shameful.

Thought it was time for an upgrade. So I did some bidding. I bought some Numark CS1s.

I really am not impressed.

Then I bought some Blue Ortofons.

Again, what makes them good?

So now I have a shit load of cartridges and needles which I intend on reselling but my question is.

What are the best cartridges and needles for their price?

I'm think the Stanton Diablo V3?

Shure M 447

I knew that would be the reply. They're essentially industry standard. But any other ones? They seem horrible expensive though.

dj seizure wrote:I knew that would be the reply. They're essentially industry standard. But any other ones? They seem horrible expensive though.

??? The Ortos are way more expensive. Why not just get new styluses for the Ortos. IMO they are the best sounding, best tracking and longest lasting dj needles out there. The only problem I have with them is the connection to the ton arm is not too good unless you have brand new tables which I do not. The White Labels rival the Ortos in every way but do not have the connection problem so that has been my choice for the last 5 years and counting. I have a pair of 447's and I think they are overrated and I can't stand the big clunky carts tbh. On a budget, the Stanton 680's are pretty good and seemed to be the standard back when I started in the mid 90's.

-1 for 447's being overrated. They have earned their rep. Try scratching with anything else. Very solid and good sounding needles.

Hi,

I'm looking for a needle that's in between scratching and quality output.
Not gonna scratch much, but a scratch here and there, that doesn't harm the vinyl offcourse. So i can scratch a little bit without having to worry about my vinyl.
But also don't want to loose much quailty on the output.

Anyone know's what i'm looking for?

Cheers

From my experience anything made by Shure seems to be the best for quality and price

Ortos have a certain amount of high end distortion; whether or not you like this is down to preference. I was talking to one of the mastering engineers from Dubplates and Mastering this week and he slated Ortofons in terms of accuracy, mentioning that he'd found the M44-7 to introduce the least distortion and fewest artifacts out of all the popular DJ cartridges (which are generally not optimal for audio quality). Looking at some test signals on a scope I can confirm this, but that's about the extent of my personal experience. I've heard scratch DJs say that 44-7s aren't good for record wear.

I've got the 680V3s; they sound quite forgiving and the highs are quite smoothed. Aforementioned D&M engineer said the old 680s (680EL I think?) were what he used to recommend to techno guys in the 90s, not necessarily because they were the best, but because they didn't sound so unpleasant at 5am when everyone was deaf and cranking up the treble. Nice for old vinyl, probably not as good for really pristine clarity. I really like how mine sound, but I don't scratch. They'll occasionally skip on backcueing, even with 4g weight or so.

It's personal preference at the end of the day. Remember that accuracy isn't everything when it comes to styli; vinyl artifacts come from many sources and the inaccuracies of the stylus definitely contribute to "the vinyl sound".

Every single club I've dj'd at recently have had so many 447s!

I think I need to jump on the bandwagon and get em!

But I've got a Blue Ortofon with needle, Numark CS1 cartridge with needle, and a Numark CS1 cartridge only for sale then!

Hi hi...

So I just bought a pair of decent 1210 MK2s and a mixer pretty cheap. All in good condition cept a few missing parts. Looking to get Serato at some point but would just like to enjoy playing with my vinyl to begin with. The main missing parts are lack of headshells, cartridges and styli!!!!

Got any advice on what to buy? Been looking at the above posts and seen that Shure m447s are 'industry standard'. I would need to buy a pair of headshells for them. Do they fit just about any? I've used them before on a mates decks but I agree with abZ when he said they were a bit clunky.

My rents have got a Pro-Ject turntable for their old vinyl and it came with an Ortofon stylus. It looks siiiccck and sounds amazing, plus it is so accurate when placing it on the track you want, etc. Is there a way of getting Ortofon styli on regular headshells like that, or do you have to go with the Concordes that seem to just connect to the tone-arm. Is there a draw back to doing one or the other?

Would appreciate any help/opinions.
Thanks

White labels

DZA wrote:White labels

alright. maybe i should add that my budget is around £100
for two!!

sebjx wrote:My rents have got a Pro-Ject turntable for their old vinyl and it came with an Ortofon stylus. It looks siiiccck and sounds amazing, plus it is so accurate when placing it on the track you want, etc. Is there a way of getting Ortofon styli on regular headshells like that, or do you have to go with the Concordes that seem to just connect to the tone-arm. Is there a draw back to doing one or the other?

Pretty much all the Ortofon DJ styli are available as Concordes or on an OM mount which screws onto a headshell; there's no difference in sound or build quality. The Concordes look cooler but the OM mounting is actually better since it's adjustable. Concordes are only really set up to work perfectly with 1210s.

static_cast wrote:

sebjx wrote:My rents have got a Pro-Ject turntable for their old vinyl and it came with an Ortofon stylus. It looks siiiccck and sounds amazing, plus it is so accurate when placing it on the track you want, etc. Is there a way of getting Ortofon styli on regular headshells like that, or do you have to go with the Concordes that seem to just connect to the tone-arm. Is there a draw back to doing one or the other?

Pretty much all the Ortofon DJ styli are available as Concordes or on an OM mount which screws onto a headshell; there's no difference in sound or build quality. The Concordes look cooler but the OM mounting is actually better since it's adjustable. Concordes are only really set up to work perfectly with 1210s.

thanks very much. sound advice. done some looking around based on what you said and it all makes sense. peace

Honestly I am thinking about getting a grado for listening and archiving and getting something cheap to dj with because I do vinyl emulation most of the time anyway problem is I have 4 different pairs of carts lying around the house and they all need expensive styluses.

Yo, can someone break down all of these components into the different pieces for a complete newb dj? Headshells, cartridges, tampons, styluses... wtf is all that?

nowaysj wrote:Yo, can someone break down all of these components into the different pieces for a complete newb dj? Headshells, cartridges, tampons, styluses... wtf is all that?

Sure ting rudebwoy.

ta dow!

What does the cartridge do?

nowaysj wrote:ta dow!

What does the cartridge do?

Holds the stylus and connects the sound up and shit.

And this is sort of different for an Ortofon? No need for a headshell?

Where is the cost, is it in the cartridge or the needle?