We also keep a select range of the more common home Hi-Fi needles in stock. For DJs: Ortofon OM & Shure N447 and as stated above, for home use we recommend the Ortofon OM PRO S cartridge. Now that we've had our little rant, regarding replacement needles, we keep a limited range of the best styli in stock. In addition to regularly replacing your needle(s), we also strongly recommend that you get yourself a little bottle of stylus cleaner and clean your needle regularly between plays. The more worn your needle, the more damage it's doing to your wax every time you play it. People often make the mistake of leaving their stylus on until it wears out. The needle is arguably the most important part of your set up! Think about it, this is where the action happens. One of our buddies is one of Australia's best producers and he raves about this number so we are going with his ears because we are all half deaf from DJing :D. The is generally the case across all brands. The next step up from your standard cartridge is around the $200 - $300 price point. In our experience, you will use a normal needle for a while and will be fine, but if you find yourself thinking about even better, clearer sound and reading up on how and why you can get it, and terms like ‘clarity’ and ‘definition’ mean something to you, then you will probably want to consider an upgrade.īe aware that there is not only a law of diminishing returns there is, there is also a pretty deep rabbit hole - it does have rather sturdy ledges on the way down though - so fear not.įor a great workhorse home HiFi cart & needle we the Ortofon OM range. It’s not a decision most will make (about 5% of you, we reckon) and you would probably want to have more than the basic set up to get any value out of a needle upgrade. So, should you just replace your needle or upgrade your cart/needle? For most people, a standard cart and needle will do the job however, the beauty of this music reproduction technology is that you can upgrade 1) if your speakers are fairly nice and 2) if your ears start suggesting you might like to. Sadly, on cheaper decks you are stuck with the cart you have got :(īasically, anything with the 2 little screws and 4 colourful wires is removable. Sometimes the headshell is fixed (trickier but doable - don't rip your wires out) Usually you can remove the whole headshell (easiest) If this is the case you should check the weight of your tone arm (if you have an adjustable tone arm that is) and if the weight is okay and your cart is still sitting low, think seriously about replacing your needle.Īs you may have read above, to replace the cartridge you need to have a removable one, Yeah, pretty high tech stuff here :) But you have to love a technology this simple.ĪLSO if the cartridge it sitting nice and high up off the record you have a bunch of life left in the thing because old/worn/abused cantilevers get weak and don't support cartridges as well so they sit very low near the vinyl, sometimes even touching it - this is very bad). If the sound is bad, that's a pretty solid sign that you might need to replace your needle (as long as you know your sound system is working in the first place). THEN play a good condition record (don't worry, you are not going to kill a record by playing it once with an old needle). This whole thing is what people mean when they refer to the 'needle' or 'stylus'.įIRST visually inspect the tip and make sure there is still a bit diamond left on the end of the cantilever (the tiny tube thing). But if you are the kind of person who listens to the white noise in the empty grooves of the records with equal fascination to the music, then go to our Hi-Fi stylus page if you want to step things up to the next level - and there are quite a few … There is another world of needle cuts above and beyond spherical which most people will not care about. But if you have some needle-nose pliers, a small screwdriver and even a semblance of manual dexterity, you will be fine. Use the form above if you would like to order one of these. They can be a little tricky to assemble and align on the headshell and we are MORE THAN HAPPY to do this for you. The OM 5S is a moving magnetic cartridge (MM) with a spherical shaped stylus that provides balanced and distortion-free playback for general purpose applications. Ortofon is a great Danish brand they have been making needles for over 70 years. Replacing the cartridge and stylus great way to refresh your machine, especially if your current cartridge is rather old. Do you have a removable cartridge? If you see two little screws on top of your headshell (see below for terms) and four little wires on the back, then you probably do. This means that for the princely sum of $69 you can buy an Ortofon OM5S Cart & Stylus: GET IT /product/1564286195/Ortofon-Cartridge-Ortofon-OM5s-Spherical-Diamond
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