Newbie looking for a cartridge (for his new Thorens)

[Calamaro]

Just found my first TT (a Thorens TD160) but it needs a cartridge. I'm on a budget, listening mostly jazz and I like a warm sound (don't like great detail due to a tinnitus). Amp is a Nad 3020.
It seems that Ortofon OM10 and AT95E are very popular; but I'm thinking also to a vintage Shure or Stanton (found a NOS 500e). And somewhere I have (don't know why) an old Stanton L720.
Probably a silly, boring question but as I am new to TT's any help would be really appreciated.

 

[sreten]

Hi,

The Audio Techinica AT92E aka the AT92ECD is probably your best bet, on a budget.

rgds, sreten.

 

[Bare]

It's been suggested that a Stanton with a Round Stylus is a V good choice.
As elliptical stylii tend to chew the hell out of record grooves very quickly.. If not perfectly aligned/setup and v few are.

 

[DF96]

The cartridge needs to match the arm rather than the turntable.

I have a TD160S with Linn Basik arm and Ortofon VMS20E cartridge (all bought many years ago). The arm and cartridge don't match too well so the resonance is a bit too low.

 

[sreten]

It's been suggested that a Stanton with a Round Stylus is a V good choice.

As elliptical stylii tend to chew the hell out of record grooves very quickly..

If not perfectly aligned/setup and v few are.

Hi,

Poor choice.

Not true, and not a lot to do with alignment.

True, not many are perfectly aligned / set up.

Really depends as DF96 states what arm is fitted.

The AT92E suits the lower mass Thorens arms.
The AT95E is better for the earlier high mass arm.

rgds, sreten.

 

[kevinkr]

To further Sreten's point I have plenty of albums purchased as long as 50yrs ago (some of my dad's) - all played for decades with elliptical styli in various often stunnily mediocre arms with variable levels of attention to detail. (i.e. not always well set up) All play just fine with my current Meister Silver SPU which has sufficient resolution to make almost any disk issue quite obvious.

 

[soundssupreme]

I don't think you can go wrong with an AT95E. It does not have any emphasis of any frequencies that I can detect, and seems pretty balanced. It does lack some colour to the sound, but is much better than a lot of budget cartridges that sound rough, especially in the treble region.
Another one to try is the Goldring Elektra. This has a warmer balance and the frequency extremes are slightly tapered off, but is still a very enjoyable listen.

I hope this helps.