Hi

It's good that Merlin has liked the turntable setup he has picked up. As for a replacement cartridge, this could be a hard one. I had a Koetsu Black in the late 80's which was very nice. I have heard a few Koetsus in my time & they do have a certain quality that a lot of cartridges will find hard to match.

As for a replacement, I would look at the Ortofon range. Look at the Kontrapunkt A & B & the Ortofon Rohmann. These will offer very tracking & good alround ability. I do think you should be able to borrow an Ortofon easier than most. I borrowed an Ortofon Jubilee for nearly a month before I bought one. I also borrowed a Transfiguration Sprit & a Dynavector XX-2.

It is interesting how some people prefer vinyl to cd & vice versa. Both mediums have strengths & weakness. I have been a big fan of vinyl since I was a kid, from the days of listening & watching my parents Alba radiogram with it's autochanger. I do find that vinyl does have a flow to it. This is something that Cd didn't have for a very long time IMO. In the last 6 years or so, I have thought that the sound of CD has stepped up in quality.  You can have & run a system that contains both cd & records players.

I agree with what has been said in that a lot of vinyl faults will reduce (or disappear) with a good or top notch turntable. It is good to see that Merlin is giving it a good go. Well done.  It also doesn't surprise me that Big Tone also has heard a vinyl system he likes. Next he'll be buying a Well Tempered turntable to play that one piece of vinyl he owns .

Out of interest Merlin, what have you got your deck sitting on? One of those Lack table with or without a Siesmic sink?

As for the price of vinyl, the downside is that new stuff can be dear. I have seen prices of £20 upwards for some new releases. The trick is to shop around. In Fopp, for example, you can pick new releases for £10. Also Fopp has a number of albums at £10 or less. These are usually single albums but you can get double albums at £10  to £15. I have picked up double albums for less than a £10 at Fopp (as low as £3). I do agree that Fopp has a good selection of Cds for £5 or less. This is one reasion why I have invested in Chord Dac64.

The best value is going to come from 2nd hand buying. Most from a few pences to £10. I done quite well in recent years with this having bought a few record collections in the last few years. If you take care, you can pick up a lot of records of your choice in very good condition to mint condition. Alot depends on what sort of music & albums you are after as some originals can be worth a lot & go for big money.

I agree that cd has good ease of use but that doesn't bother me as much as some people. What you can do is play a piece of vinyl then switch to cd while you change the record. On a good day I can change a record very quickly.

The main thing is to enjoy your music what ever source or sources you use.

SCIDB