Needle Question

[randal smarth]

Hello

I just had a quick question about turntable needles. I am currently playing vinyl's on 2 audio-technical lp 120's and have been noticing that both of the needles are wearing down. I was going to originally going to replace them with the same type needles that came standard with the turntables. However I recently did a small house party not to long ago and a fellow DJ said I should check into a company called Ortofon and highly recommended them. So after taking a look at there webpage I noticed there are a hell of a lot of options to choose from in terms of needle cartridges. Can anyone give me some recommendations to what kind of needle carts I should be looking into from this company. I am mostly using them for home practice and doing small night clubs/ dive bars.

[sarasin]

I use the Ortofon Scratch and Disco.

They are both great for home and club use.

[mostapha]

Budget?

I think Ortofons are overrated....I used to own DJs and didn't really like them (meh sound). Nightclubs were better, but there's better for the money.

My personal choices...

Top-End: Shure Whitelabel
Scratching: Shure M-447
Practice/Backup: Shure M-44G
Budget: Shure M35X

I'm a Shure fanboy when it comes to cartridges.

The Whitelabels sound great and are as easy to use as the Ortofon Concorde (same style...no headshell to screw with). But the replacement styli are expensive. M-447s sound good and track better. M-44Gs sound almost as good as whitelabels...very clear and awesome, and they track well enough for normal scratching. The M35Xs are worse on all criteria, but they're cheap, and so are the styli.

Also, just to make sure, you know you can replace the stylus and not the whole cartridge when the stylus wears out, right?

I sold my whitelabels when I sold my decks a few years ago, and didn't re-buy when I bought another set of 1200s. But, I'll be picking up another pair at some point.

If you're using a DVS, just get M-447s. Their imperfect (bassy and a little noisy) sound quality doesn't affect your audio, and if you set up the tonearm right...if they EVER skip, it's because you really don't know what you're doing or the record is freaking destroyed....or the tonearm is broken. The Gs and WLs are close to that, but you're paying for better sound that you're not using. If it's all-vinyl, I'd go with WLs or Gs for performance and 35s for practicing.

[D-Kem]

I love my M44-7's. A great all rounder and cheap to replace.