[rcag_ils]

I need some cartridges recommendation (low in price but high in quality, is there such thing?) for my SME 3009 II improved arm, it's light and made for high compliance cartridges. I tried Grado, and Ortofon X5, they both didn't sound good on it.

Thanks

[TheChairGuy]

I need some cartridges recommendation (low in price but high in quality, is there such thing?) for my SME 3009 II improved arm, it's light and made for high compliance cartridges. I tried Grado, and Ortofon X5, they both didn't sound good on it.

Thanks

Well, the Grado should do fine in a light arm....it's probably the tweeky nature of the Grado that let you down

The Ortofon X5 is a curious beasty...it tends to like heavier arms (as do most/all moving coils), but it has a very weak bottom end as a stock cartridge and as a high output device, wants to be loaded at ~1-2K and that's not often available so it exacerbates it's sonic issues.

There seems to be 2 versions of the venerable X5....and older one with a 0.4gram effective mass that folks rave about.  Later, it ballooned to a 0.7gram effective mass that predictably make it sound slow, bloated and weak bass in comparison to the lithe original.  I have the latter/fatter one...and you may also.

If you're sticking with that arm - stick with cartridges requiring a light arm.  The Audio-Technica's, Goldring's are those among current makes with a wide variety of prices (you didn't mention a price range)

I love the old ADC XLM series myself for light tonearms - but they are getting tougher to find as they are out of production now for 30 years

John

[WGH]

The Goldring G1042 is a perfect match for the low mass arm (8 grams) I have on my table. The SME will probably work better because it's adjustments will enable you to easily fine tune alignment to get the most from the Fritz Gyger S stylus. About $324 from Origin Live.



Wayne

[TheChairGuy]

btw, if your SME arm has a damping trough...by all means use it with high compliance cartridges.  Because of their higher compliance, they tend to benefit from fluid damping the most.

It's an individualized decision to use fluid damping ultimately...but generally speaking, high compliance cartridges sound a bit more 'focused' (ie, tighter bass, etc) using it.

The Grado's, in particular, benefit mightily from fluid damping...so as you already have one of those around, you may want to try that again with damping.  It'll remove a lot of that bass overhang Grado's tend to have in stock form.

John

[AlexG]

The SME 3009 S2 (improved) was design originally for low-medium mass and high compliance cartridges. On the higher end the Shure V15VxMR, AT160ML and the ADC ZLM (if you can find any) are absolutely great cartridges for this arm in my opinion. I have also had great results with the AT120E which I think is very musical after broken in (20-40 hours) for around $75! The AT440MLA should also be a great match. I like AT cartridges 

Alex

[rcag_ils]

I tried two Grado, the black and the red, both with disappointing result. The bass response is very limited. But these two cartridges sound fantastic on the other tonearm arms, like the Japanese Jelco based type arms.

Not sure what's wrong. I may try AT cart. next.