Quote Originally Posted by James Frace View Post
To the OP, The Grado cartridge is what they call a moving iron cartridge,it's still in the MM designation, but will have a different sound to it. Some say more 3D and tube like. It definitely will give a better sound stage in my opinion. I own 2 Dual turntables that I restored fully. A 1229Q and a 701. I use several different cartridges on them. I have a Stanton 881S MKII, Stanton 881S, Stanton 681EEE with a Jico D6800EEE Shibata, Shure V-15 III with Jico SAS VN35E stylus as well as the original VN35E stylus, Shure 1000E, Shure M91ED, Pickering XV-15 with D4500 Jico shibata stylus, and Ortofon VMS 30E MKII with Jico stylus,Ortofon OM40 and OM30. The Ortofon VMS 30E MKII and Stanton 681EEE are both moving iron cartridges and the rest are moving magnet. In my opinion the MM are slightly laid back a little in the bass department. I find myself coming back to the Ortofon and 681 more than the others as I get a better sound stage and imaging with them. I also use a tube amp.

I would look at half speed issues with records as well as looking at Mobil Fidelity and Music Magic for the type of records you are looking to buy. Also look at discogs and don't limit yourself to only unopened music as you will lose the real quality on vinyl from re-issues that have been tinkered with. Any record that has been "cleaned up" digitally, is now a digital remix and loses that sound quality. Again just my opinion. I just recently got back into vinyl over the last 15 months and after ruining my old collection of over 1200 records,had to start over with only 50 that were salvageable. I now have about 800 and do the same as you, I purchase things that remind me of times gone by. I have 1400+ cds that I uploaded onto my computer and did them in FLAC and put them on an external HD and use the hard drive through JRIVER. But my vinyl is what I find myself playing with more. You'll be surprised by what you can find when going to a Goodwill store or something similar in quality and shape. Invest in a record cleaner as well and make sure to keep your stylus clean and as long as you keep up with things should have a lifetime of listening pleasure.

When and if you get into MC you'll have the choice of low output and high output. You'll need a step up transformer or an external phono pre amp that does both MM/MC or just MC. The only MC I have tried so far is a high output Denon DL-110 and I didn't like it at all. I am however looking into getting a nice low output MC cartridge to try out.
I am enjoying the Grado Gold for now. I did pick up a Dynavector 10x5 cart but still a little intimidated about doing an install on my own.

I have been on a bit of a buying spree in the last two months ( assuming 95 albums count as a spree). In almost all cases, these are both albums I listened to in my youth and that have some or a lot of information about the mastering / pressing quality. Overall they tend to be as gooid as or better representations of the original music than the CD equivalent ( at least in the minds of others). I am close to slowing down at this point , as I have months of listening ahead of me with these new acquisitions.

We do have a pretty decent record venue in our area (Newbury Comics) that buys extensive record collections. That notwithstanding, the better used record are still $9 - $10 dollars (They have $.99 bins but no guarantee of condition). By careful shopping, I am averaging about $18 per album for new records, and, given my investment in source equipment, prefer to have the quietest vinyl I can find. I have hundreds of CD's and quite a few SACd's and XRCD's, most of which have cost between $3 and $10 each, so unless the vinyl sounds "better", I buy the CD.

A few remasters with digital in the chain are included in my recent purchases, but these albums still satisfy my need to " return to my youth". As I recently told my 16 year old daughter ( I was a late bloomer), try to imagine your life without a computer - my generation felt the same about record players. So go spin LZ I and remember the day you brought it home for the first time back in '69.