which new carts to go for

the_cheeky_scam

ragamuffin biznizz
Joined
Jan 23, 2005
ok, have finally got some reddies together to buy some decent carts (am rocking 7 year old 500ALs at the mo!)
but am stumped as to what to go for. i have narrowed it down to the following three;

Stanton groovemaster II pro
Ortofon Concorde Nightclub E
Shure whitelabels

advice please....

EDIT - btw i play old jungle and don't scratch a lot so am more bothered about caring for my vinyl than about tracking
 
Last edited:
Serum said:
Ortofons are the worst for your vinyl

see, my mate said the same thing - he had concorde djs, but got shot of them in favour of trackmasters - i thought he must be mistaken, ortofon are so established as a brand leader, i've used them in clubs and thought them ok. thing is i've used trackmasters and liked them too.
i've not used the whitelabels, but i hear VERY good things about them...
all in all, i'm lost!
 
Shure has always given me the best results, get m447's if you want a deeper more bassy sound, while whitelabels have very accented highs and mids. A lot of people tell me the long groovemaster type cartridges put your records through the most wear so you might wanna stear clear of those.
 
Defo the Shure's, the white label's if you don't do too many tricks with the vinyl, or the M44-7's if you're into your scratching and that. My friend has some of the white's and the sound quality is absolutely spot on.
 
Good choice.

"btw i play old jungle and don't scratch a lot so am more bothered about caring for my vinyl than about tracking"

=

Whitelabels.

I've got them. Have them super low weight, and they still track so well. Gorgeous.

(And I just read they're teebee's favourites too... so they must be ok for scratching etc.)
 
the_cheeky_scam said:
an american ebay shop. there's loads offering them
even including UPS they're £100 a pair
hooray for the poor state of the american economy!
I'm looking at getting a new mixer from the US. Do you know that if you import anything like that you'll have to pay an extra 3.5% import tax plus 17.5% VAT. On whitelabels you'll only save about 20-30 quid plus you'll have all the agro of trying to get the stuff released from customs
 
the cheeky scam said:
nah they'll just mark it as gift.
works on all the stuff i get from the states
plus customs only ever check courier delivery
That's cool then. Let us know how it goes
 
Just to bring this conversation to the fore again, what kinda stylus do the whitelabels have? I think the Concordes have fairly round stylus ends, I definitely know that they lose high end frequencies but I think that's the expense you pay for a less aggressive groove action...

What'd be really helpful is a site that gives you audio previews and frequency response charts for all these different types of carts. Anybody know of something like that?

It could be a project for this site otherwise :D
 
xen said:
What'd be really helpful is a site that gives you audio previews

ortofon do on their site, but only for their products...
the w/ls have a spherical tip
but it is now irrelevant as;

SHURE WHITELABELS ARE OFFICIALLY THE MUTT'S NUTS!

they turned up this morning (and i've had the nastiest day at work waiting to get home and use 'em) ;)

have just finished an hour or so mix on them... and they are the best pins i've used by a long, long way
:rave:
 
Xen said:
What'd be really helpful is a site that gives you audio previews and frequency response charts for all these different types of carts. Anybody know of something like that?
That's a really good idea, I like it! ;)

the cheeky scam said:
SHURE WHITELABELS ARE OFFICIALLY THE MUTT'S NUTS!
they turned up this morning (and i've had the nastiest day at work waiting to get home and use 'em)
have just finished an hour or so mix on them... and they are the best pins i've used by a long, long way
Glad it worked out for ya! Think I'll have to get some myself ;)
 
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