THE QUESTION : which one out of these cartridges is better for playing records (not digital) & club djing and why? (i want to learn the reason why!) thank you!
ONE: $316.29 - Ortofon Concorde Night Club E MKII Cartridge Twin Pack
Frequency Response 20-22000 Hz +/-1.5dB
Output @ 1kHz 5cm/sec - 8 mV
Channel Separation @ 1kHz 1.5 dB
Channel Balance @ 1kHz 23 dB
Tracking Ability at 315Hz at recommended tracking force - 80
Tracking Force 2.0-5.0g (20-50mN)
DC Resistance 1000 Ohm
Inductance 580 mH
Cartridge Weight 18.5 g
VERSUS
TWO: $358.18 - Ortofon Concorde Gold Cartridge Twin Pack
Frequency Response 20-22000Hz
Output @ 1kHz 6 mV
Channel Separation @ 1kHz 23 dB
Tracking Ability 80 µm
Stylus Tip Type Special elliptical
Tracking Force 2.0-5.0g
Inductance 450 mH
Cartridge Weight 18.5g
Recommended Load 47 kOhm
Replacement Stylus Gold
i use the shure 35c good for mixing and scratching. I really dont buy into all the hype on needles that cost over $100.00. They play vinyl or most if not all the time…DVS timecodes.
Both of those are said to be pretty good. The nightclub is the higher output of the two, and to get that extra boost without pushing the mixer is sometimes really sweet. A couple close buddies of mine use the Shure M-447’s for mixing, Serato and Torq respectively. They like them for the tracking on the timecode, and replacements are relatively cheap.
Output voltage at 1000 Hz, 5cm/sec. 7,5 mV
Channel balance at 1 kHz 1,5 dB
Channel separation at 1 kHz 25 dB
Channel separation at 15 kHz 15 dB
Frequency range 20-22.000 Hz
Frequency response 20-15.000 Hz +3 / -2 dB
FIM distortion at recommended tracking force, DIN 45.542 < 1%
Tracking ability at 315Hz at recommended tracking force 80 µm
Compliance, dynamic, lateral 6 µm/mN
Stylus type Spherical
Stylus tip radius R 18 µm
Equivalent stylus tip mass 0,6 mg
Tracking force range 3,0-5,0 g (30-50 mN)
Tracking force, recommended 4,0 g (40 mN)
Tracking angle 20°
Internal impedance, DC resistance 750 Ohm
Internal inductance 450 mH
Recommended load resistance 47 kOhm
Recommended load capacitance 200-600 pF
Cartridge colour, body/stylus White/White
Cartridge weight 18,5 g
Replacement stylus unit Elektro
Whatever floats your boat really. At that point, they are all pretty damned close and if you can afford to play around with all three eventually, you’ll be able to decide which you like best. I went with the white ones because I figured they’d be swell in dark environments personally, specs being what they are. Also got a good deal on them.
In fact my mother replaced her needle recently with some 15 buck pos needle don’t even remember the name. I put it in and it sound perfectly fine. But you won’t look cool if you don’t conform
yeah, I would recommend Shures over either of those overpriced ortofons. I don’t particularly like Concorde style carts anyway; I always feel like they’re going to snap off the tonearm. I own some Ortofon scratch carts I bought for a discount like 10 years ago and they do sound slightly better than my Shures, but they also wear the record harder (I noticed this with a really old and very thin vinyl record where I could hear the distortion that a single backspin added) and for me that wasn’t worth the tradeoff – I switched to the Shures after that and haven’t really used the Ortofons since (though I do keep them around as backups).
If your playing records i would go with Ortofons, Strictly DVS, Shures will do.
I personally don’t like Shure needles, they cue burn the shit out of vinyl (hince the great traction)..but if your using straight time-code I would roll with the m44-7s since replacing CVs are cheap.
Weird, my experience is the exact opposite – far worse record wear with the Ortofons. It could just be the Ortofon Scratches that have this problem – I don’t know about any of their other carts – but I certainly have never seen it in Shures (except when they are modified to emulate straight tonearms). Except with battle wax that gets seriously thrashed, but not from playing records.
Both wouldn’t be great for a club in my opinion - for one reason: elliptical styli. These have the potential to sound better, but they are prone to much more wear and tear on someones vinyl and worse tracking when moving the vinyl backwards - so obviously no scratcher’s carts, but in the past I even found it to be tricky to mix with a Nightclub E. It does sound quite good, though.
There also is a Ortofon Nightclub model with a spherical needle. Better for your vinyl, but to be honest, for anything other than hard techno, minimal and the like, it sounds too harsh for my taste.
I don’t know the Concorde Gold, but even Ortofon themselves say that it has basically been designed to look good on the Limited Edition Technics turntables. So my guess is that it’s basically some fancy looking relabeled lower-end model for a steep price.
If I had to choose between the two, I’d take the Nightclub E.
If I had to choose another ortofon cart, I’d go for the bog standard Concorde Pro anytime. Best allrounder of the bunch.
Oh, and BTW, @djproben: The Ortofon Scratch (original model) tends to wear down really quickly, and when it’s worn, for some reason seems like it basically eats your vinyl. It’s not that bad with a properly adjusted headshell-mounted OM model, set at the bottom-end of the recommended tracking force range. I have some, and after going through a couple of replacement styli, I think I finally hit the sweet spot. Next time they wear out, I’m going to switch back to the OM Pro S though.
