Suggest a cartridge/pickup for me

[Mnyb]

Hi all . I've bought a used mint condition
Thorens TD 126 MK II Electronic with an SME Series III arm it arrives with an venerable Stanton 881S .
Must admit that i mostly bought it because the combo is a classic and beautiful, could not afford as a kid .

Suppose the cartridge might be a little bit old replacement stylus exist even with Shibata geometry ? But they are all pirated .

For this tone arm what is a reasonable cart for occasional play for the fun of it i would like something better than a round or elliptical diamond .

Are there any point with an MC cart these days ? 30 years ago i had Ortofon MC30 or MC20 .

AT and Ortofon are still around . Must admit that i have limited knowledge nowadays ? especially about compliance and matching carts to arms ?

 

[somebodyelse]

Jico make a replacement stylus for the 811S. I won't think we've seen that in the cartridge measurement thread but their replacements for Shure models have measured pretty well.
https://www.jico-stylus.com/product/881shibata/

AT's MM models are generally recommended as great value, with a choice of stylus profiles depending on preference and budget. You probably can't go far wrong with the AT-VM95ML but could step up to the SH or AT-VM740xML with a bit more budget. Assuming they match the arm...

VinylEngine has an arm/cartridge resonance calculator and info on various SME Series III variants and cartridge models so you can check the match.

I'm not entirely convinced MC has ever made sense over a high end MM like the Shure V15 III/IV/V - see the measurements thread mentioned earlier. About the only advantage they have is lack of load sensitivity, but as the measurements show that's reasonably manageable anyway.

 

[Mnyb]

Great I’m going to checkout the arm resonance calculator, once I get the turntable, Variants ? The arm comes with documentation ill check that .

Yeas in the old days the MC cart where always more expensive, now they are all expensive ?

 

[somebodyelse]

Looks like the effective mass is the same for all of them, and low. That may make finding a compatible modern cartridge tricky, but there might be workarounds I'm not aware of - someone with more experience may chime in on this.
https://www.vinylengine.com/library/sme/series-iii.shtml

Cheaper MCs still cost less than expensive MMs, but the low cost MCs tend to have spherical or elliptical profiles while the expensive MMs will have line contact or shibata. Most MMs have replaceable stylus assemblies, and you can often swap stylus profiles with the same cartridge body. MMs need a retip or trade-in. Some people make all sorts of claims about MC's superiority, but the limited blind testing available doesn't back that up:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/toole-blind-cartridge-comparison.41780/

 

[DVinylfan]

I had a Linn K9 MM, a Goldring Elektra MM, then a Denon DL-110 HOMC, a Denon DL-103 LOMC and now a Hana SH Mk2 HOMC. In every case I've felt each cartridge was an improvement on the previous one. But now I'm up to a €700 cartridge with a non-replaceable stylus.
My next cartridge will be an AT VM540ML based on its affordability and almost unanimously positive reviews.
My arms were Rega or Origin Live, mid-weight and not too prone to arm-resonance issues as far as I can tell.
At least I didn't go down that particular rabbit hole.
The only issues I have struggled with a bit were with output level, particularly with the HOMC cartridges using a MM phono preamp. 2mV equals a big difference in volume terms from 5mV in this case.

 

[Mnyb]

Jico make a replacement stylus for the 811S. I won't think we've seen that in the cartridge measurement thread but their replacements for Shure models have measured pretty well.
https://www.jico-stylus.com/product/881shibata/

AT's MM models are generally recommended as great value, with a choice of stylus profiles depending on preference and budget. You probably can't go far wrong with the AT-VM95ML but could step up to the SH or AT-VM740xML with a bit more budget. Assuming they match the arm...

VinylEngine has an arm/cartridge resonance calculator and info on various SME Series III variants and cartridge models so you can check the match.

I'm not entirely convinced MC has ever made sense over a high end MM like the Shure V15 III/IV/V - see the measurements thread mentioned earlier. About the only advantage they have is lack of load sensitivity, but as the measurements show that's reasonably manageable anyway.

Seems like the AT VM740ML migth work the AT VMx740ML is not as good ( sligthly lover compliance ) ? the Ortofon 2M Bronze seems to be an better fit in the middle of the table ?

I actually get the fluid damper with the arm it then seems possible to adapt a vide selection of carts provided i get all the paddles ?

This should be a fun project , what a mess this is not consumer friendly at all one understands why so many adopted CD as fast as possible

 

[Mnyb]

One should possible add 2g for the screws ..

 

[somebodyelse]

One should possible add 2g for the screws ..

Or consider aluminium or nylon screws if that mass is critical

 

[Mnyb]

Or consider aluminium or nylon screws if that mass is critical

For the AT a little more mass is better.

Good idea about the light weight screws !

 

[Mnyb]

Hey all I bought a Ortofon 2M BRONZE the old Stanton actually fell into pieces when removed it held on for dear life .
And one the litz wires where broken off from the connector previous owner had just fit the wire between the pickup pin and the connector .
Which prompted me to buy a simple solder station and a soldering "stand/fixture thing" with built in magnifying glass , i gladly outsource this someone else next time , last time i did this 30 years ago i had no problem seeing the darn things ...

But note of caution the 2M is rather large it barely fits inside the shell of the older version off series III armwand , so i had to press it into place .

So now I'm after the modified arm wand ? found most other spares online but no extra arm wands ?

 

[DSJR]

Late to the party. I love the exuberance of the 2M Bronze and if you can get the wiring sorted, I wish you many happy hours of use with it as like the OM and Super OM predecessors, it should be great in the SME III. The previous Ortofon Concorde arm wands used to be very good I remember.

Since SME were taken over, they appear to have ceased selling parts and what they had, was extremely expensive. In the UK (Scotland), Audio Origami may be able to re-wire the wand if the plug can be easily removed at t'other end as I'm not sure SME can help now on forty to fifty year old products.

(Sad note, I looked up a Worthing based dealer that definitely had a couple of SME III Concorde arm wands and maybe more, admittedly some time back, but they closed in 2020 due to retirement and Covid - makes me feel older than ever).

I've just seen this eBay vendor. I have no experience here but there's 100% feedback, so consider at your own risk -

SME SERIES 3 ARMWAND REWIRE SERVICE | eBay UK

WHEN REWIRE IS DONE. Excellent rewire of my Series III arm. Quality materials. HOW IT WORKS?. excellent work. A+ excellent.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[Gregm]

Hey all I bought a Ortofon 2M BRONZE the old Stanton actually fell into pieces when removed it held on for dear life .

Congrats!

But note of caution the 2M is rather large it barely fits inside the shell of the older version off series III armwand , so i had to press it into place .

Excuse my reiterating the obvious -- but if it works, why worry?
In the good old days I had a SME 3012 with detachable headshell. I had a Stanton and a Shure V15 on separate headshells. The idea was, you'd switch from one to the other and play; you couldn't, of course, without fiddling with alignment etc first... Great stuff!

So now I'm after the modified arm wand ? found most other spares online but no extra arm wands ?

Do you have the

 

[Mnyb]

Congrats!

Excuse my reiterating the obvious -- but if it works, why worry?
In the good old days I had a SME 3012 with detachable headshell. I had a Stanton and a Shure V15 on separate headshells. The idea was, you'd switch from one to the other and play; you couldn't, of course, without fiddling with alignment etc first... Great stuff!

Do you have the

The series iii differs a bit the headshell is fixed but the whole arm is joined at the base with a connection . Similar to a headshell conection.

During the “ultra light arm” years both shure and Ortofon build thier own arm with integrated mm pickups as a variation on this theme , similar to an Ortofon Concorde but built into the arm with a fine line stylus not a DJ stylus.

That modified CA-1 arm with a slightly larger headshell would be nice to have , also for future use .