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Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

RE: Kenwood 770 D Turntable?

You don't want to overkill with the cartridge-- it should be one that the turntable and your phono stage can handle well but whose performance potential is more-or-less matched, if you see what I mean. If you chose a $1000 cart, the Kenwood might not deliver all the potential you paid for- it's somewhat of an economic argument. Your Yamaha also provides an upper bound on how much goodness you can hear from a cartridge.

Just guessing, you might get best cost/benefit into the $300-400 range, much beyond you might be skirting diminishing-returns territory. That's painting with a very broad brush though, my friend! You have to go where your heart leads- for example how big a diamond ring is "big enough" for your beloved? How fine a cartridge is fine enough?

Second point is you might not want to deal with a moving-coil cartridge because of the cost and troublesome matching of the needed transformer of head-amp, and mtching it to your Yamaha.

My experience is mostly with "vintage" older units, but the Ortofon Blue (under $300) is popular with the VA crowd, 20CU is good, and the output at 5.5mV is just right. If you shop around a bit, you might still find the Audio-Technica AT440 - almost a reference standard- under $300, Nice sound, although it has been replaced by a new series A-T cartridges. That it's a little "bright" might work well with the Yamaha, which may be a little "warm." Of course, if you want silky, shiny midrange there's the Grado Gold II around $260 bucks- too greasy for my taste, though the specs are right. Good luck!


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  Michael Percy Audio  


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