Nagaoka MP-110 or Rega Carbon?

[Cyreg]

My Nag MP110 plays very musical, detailed yet warm and without IGD in the RB250/TecnoWeight on a Michell TecnoDec
Just what you're looking for

[Macca]

I agree a better cartridge would be worthwhile especially given the quality of the deck and arm but given the choice of these two I'd take the Nagaoka over a cheap, re-badged AT.

[Tim]

Thanks guys for the suggestions so far - I have heard a 2M 'Red' and it wasn't for me, I found it too harsh and detailed for my tastes, I guess I lean more toward a pipe and slippers sound. I have also heard some very expensive Shelter cartridges (only two to be fair, in very different systems) and to me they sounded more 'digital' than my current FBA system and I didn't enjoy either of them. I have worked hard to make my system sound as un-digital as possible and have been complemented on how it sounds and how non-fatiguing it is to listen to, which it has to be with the amount of time I spend playing music. I just love the sound as I have said many times before - mostly because of the Harbeth's.

I get the points about spending more and money isn't really the issue, it's just that I am finding it hard to justify that much on a source component which will only be used occasionally, as opposed to many hours a day, every day, which my FBA system is and it will always remain my primary source. I think it was Martin (Macca) who posted some time ago about his costs and calculated it worked out about 50p a play, taking cartridge cost (not sure what the cart was) and life expectancy into consideration - I nearly fell off my chair when I read that. That would mean about £6-8.00 a day for me running a turntable, which just wouldn't work. If you look at my play history since April 2012 (68,282 tracks) and took an average of say 8 songs per LP side, that's over £4,000! I know I wouldn't play that many LPs in reality, it would be a mixture of FBA and vinyl, but that's a scary figure for me to consider, when buying cartridges.

The Nag is looking a good bet and if I find I am enjoying and playing a lot more records than FBA, then I could reconsider when it comes time to replace it, maybe with a Nag around the 2-300 mark like a 150 or maybe 200 as Marco suggests. I'm surprised no-one has said anything positive about the Carbon, as I seem to remember reading some rave reviews here? Don't forget guys I am looking for a budget cartridge at the moment.

Good info though, all very useful knowledge which has been very helpful

[Ali Tait]

Some info on Acutex here-

http://mail.audiokarma.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=528291

[Macca]

That cost per play was based on a replacement stylus for a Nag Mp500 costing £220 and the estimated stylus life being 200 hrs BUT there are some buts there, there seem to be a number of different estimations of the longevity of these needles, the 200 hours is taken from Nags own website and may well be a misprint.

Ulitmately if your vinyl use is going to be anything other than a couple of spins a month just for the novelty then you really do need to spend some money if you want to approach the quality of budget digital. That means a quality stylus that will track the inner grooves without distorting and a record cleaning machine of some description.

Vinyl is very much a secondary source for me but even then if I add up the cost of TT, cart and RCM that is £1500 right there. That is more than the rest of the system put together. And the difference in quality between my TT set up and something like Marco's is comparable with the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

You can't do vinyl properly on the cheap. It is the nature of the beast.

[walpurgis]

200 hours has to be wrong Martin. There's a '0' missing.

[Ali Tait]

That was my thought.

[Macca]

That was the eventual conclusion, although if the site did not have so many other typos it would be a bit concerning. Even at 2000 hours that is still approx 23p a side

[hifi_dave]

The Carbon is an excellent budget cartridge and there is nothing to match it at anywhere near the price. If you want a good, inexpensive stop gap, it will be ideal. What's not to like at £25.99 ?

[RichB]

I agree a better cartridge would be worthwhile especially given the quality of the deck and arm but given the choice of these two I'd take the Nagaoka over a cheap, re-badged AT.

So would I...

Forget about Rega unless you're after an Exact

Even then it's a marmite cartridge, but nice in an all Rega system.