I just bought a AT-LP-1240 that I plan on using for mostly listening but sometimes using it for sampling/scratching. I heard the scratching part can be hard on needle, etc. What do others do - do you have a setup for listening and another for scratching or ??! Really new to the vinyl thing.
The AT-LP 1240 has a removable headshell. That’s good because you can have two cartridges. I’d recommend the Nagaoka MP-110 for listening and Ortofon has a good selection of DJ cartridges. You would just need another headshell, but some cartridges come with one. I’m a huge nerd about turntable stuff. Lol.
Same opinion. Buy 2 different cartridges. I have a Shure M44-7 for scratching and general purposes. And I have a Sumiko Black Pearl when I want to sample with less high and more bass. It depends on sampled records but sometimes the M44-7 or other DJ cartridges sound very harsh.
In the case of your turntable it seems you have the choice between phono output level, line output level or USB. It may be worth doing tests to find the sound of the output you like the most.
Personnaly in the S2400 I always choose the inputs with the 16 bit circuitry. In this case I can resample afterwards and have both the 16 and 12 bit version of the sample easily. If you sample in 12 bit directly you lose flexibility.
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mk1 gold 1200 for work and listening
they are approaching 23 or more years old now
stanton al500 clone carts, simple
pair 1200 GRs here- not really a DJ table but dj’ing with it is fine. Have a selection O’ cartridges for various reasons, but usually prefer M44-7s. Problem is needles are difficult to source. The Jico ones are pretty decent, but just dont look OEM. In the quest for a current replica I bought a pair of Ortofon VNLs. They are supposedly modeled after the M44-7, but they arent quite as good IMHO.(need higher tracking force, and the level isnt quite as good)
Which JICO styli do you have, N44-7/G? When and where did you buy them?
Just sort of curious…
I have a few different ones- dont have the cases handy but a few are white but dont have the brush attachment and I have 2 of the glow in the dark ones which seem slightly better.
thanks, that’s interesting.
general FYI, none of the JICO N44 models came with the brush attachment (guard), iirc, which is a minor shame. the glow in the dark ones may have slightly higher output. other than that and the knob color, no difference between them – assuming the white ones are conical (spherical) tipped styli.
compared to the OEM Shure equivalents of these needles, the JICO have lower outputs (glow in the dark maybe closer?) and slightly different compliance ratings, but that shouldn’t matter too much in most cases.
if you ever get curious about high performance needles, I can’t recommend the JICO Berylium SAS enough. hands down the best user-replaceable moving magnet styli made today, for real. they can be amazing for sampling, on the right source material. of course you’d need a compatible cartridge, though.
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Btw Jico is releasing their clone cartridge of the M44-7. Lsst time I saw information on the Internet they were taking preorders. Specs seem a bit lower than the original.
I have 3 different Jico stylus which I don t remember the name. This is another problem with Jico’s line-up. Too many references. Confusing. And I don t really like them because they are not as stable as the original needles. At least from my experience scratching with the QFO.
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Thank, this is the exact info I’m looking for.
I would all but guarantee the JICO M44-7 cartridge is made by Ogura. (At least the transducer components.) They don’t have anywhere near the engineering acumen or production capacity for that scale of manufacturing.
Yeah, the JICO catalogue is a mess. You have no idea how disorganized…
Their N44 styli are certainly not as well suited for scratching as OEM Shure. Not terrible, but not totally accurate to spec. That’s the compliance rating, which tends to be rather cavalier in comparison to the originals, for a broad range of their replacement styli. I’m not familiar with the QFO however, so I can’t say for certain.
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Agree @noisemodule but also think that in the last few years of production the Shure N44-7s left alot to be desired. I have a 10 year old M44-7 with the original stylus and it has been much more robust than the 2nd one I bought(towards the end of the run) that ended up breaking needles every 6 months or so. I do like the the Ortofon VNL comes with three compliance levels included, but I generally like the lowest setting so the others are just temporary spares if something happens to that.
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I’m using a 30 old pair of 1200 MK2s that I recently got serviced and are basically as good as new. I’ve been using Taruya Red for a few months now, and they’re legit imho. Same high output thing as the Shures, feel to me like kinda a luxury M44-7, which is mainly what I’d used up until then.
But they’re definitely a DJ cart, I’ve been thinking about getting something like a Nagaoka MP-200H for ripping and sampling vinyl, interested if anyone has any recommendations for these kinds of purposes?
The Jicos look fine to me, just had my head turned by the Taruya rather than order replacements, but I’m also interested in the 100 Sounds version, have heard good things about their own carts: RS-44-100B – 100 SOUNDS
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I don’t know how they compare with others since it’s my first scratching needle but I bought the Ortofon Concorde Scratch. If I had it to do over though I’d probably get the scratch and get the club. I don’t back scratch that often. I can recommend without reservation the reloop rp7000mk2 turn tables they are 50-60% less than the technics mk7.