Cartridge for Alphason arm

[Tom-Brown]

As part of my winter GL75 re-build I now have an Alphason HR-100s tone arm with Johnnie at audio origami having a full re-furb :) :) So what cart would be best suited to such an arm..??? I'm willing to consider MM or MC but I do have a 2M black waiting in a drawer for it. But,, MC will mean more spending on a suitable SUT or go for high output versions.

[Scooby]

I've ran AT-33, AT-OC9 and Denon DL-103R without issue. Liked all of them.

[Audio Advent]

I don't know exactly what is a best match but mine came with an Ortofon MC5000 on it (sadly broken - was a free extra). That was the dealer's matching when purchased new by the previous owner. My turntable's not set up at the moment and I was only using a standby Glanz MM cart before... so I can't answer from experience .. yet.

I'm sure there must be a current Ortofon range based on or similar to their top end 90s carts.

[Ants]

I've used Goldring 1042 MM, audio technica AT OC9 mk 2 and mk 3 MC's on my Alphason / kenwood KD600. They all worked just fine although the Goldring is a low riding cartridge (sits very close to record surface).
The tonearm is medium mass so pretty much most modern cartridges will work but if you use a heavier cartridge or ortofon SPU then you may need a heavier counterweight .....I'd say. Older cartridges from the golden era I couldn't say - you'd have to work out if the compliance of the cartridge was a match to the tonearm ....
Johnnie7 also repaired my Alphason - great job he did too.... 😄👍

[Tom-Brown]

I've used Goldring 1042 MM, audio technica AT OC9 mk 2 and mk 3 MC's on my Alphason / kenwood KD600. They all worked just fine although the Goldring is a low riding cartridge (sits very close to record surface).
The tonearm is medium mass so pretty much most modern cartridges will work but if you use a heavier cartridge or ortofon SPU then you may need a heavier counterweight .....I'd say. Older cartridges from the golden era I couldn't say - you'd have to work out if the compliance of the cartridge was a match to the tonearm ....
Johnnie7 also repaired my Alphason - great job he did too.... ����

Cheers Ants
That's what I was looking for "Medium Mass"!! I've got a ortofon 2m black sat in a drawer somewhere - might play with MC's at a later date :) :)

[Audio Advent]

Here is the cartridge mass/compliance guide for the Alphason (entered effective mass as 11g for it) :

http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge_resonance_evaluator.php?eff_mass=11&submit=Submit

Scroll down to the grid - any mass/compliance combo which keeps you in the green band should be perfect. I presume you can add mass to move a light cart into the band?

Then you can of course go to Vinyl Engine's cartridge database http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge_database.php and enter the mass / compliance figures you're searching for. And finger's crossed the data in the database is correct! Should give you a good list of suitable carts.


For example, the MC5000 mine came with would have sat nicely in the green band with 10Hz resonance (12 x10-6 compliance figure, 9.5g mass). But adding a 2g weight might get it closer to perfect (assuming the middle band of 9Hz resonance is best).

[Tom-Brown]

Cheers Sam, I'll have a look at that :cool: :cool: