I hated the stock cartridge that came with my Music Hall USB 1 Turntable and after a few months I started noticing some distortion on acoustic recordings. I’d been wanting to replace the stock cartridge from day one but I hadn’t so the distortion and some spare cash gave me the kick in the ass I needed to get a nicer set up. I really didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg since this isn’t the highest of quality turntables. I knew of the Ortofon OM 10 Super from discussions on hi-fi forums. I knew that it was one of the best sub $100 cartridges money could buy. I asked Needle Doctor via email for their advice and they suggest the exact thing I was thinking.
This thing was super easy to set up. It seriously took like five minutes. The first thing I tried it out on was the Ben Nichols LP that I got recently. It was the record that I had initially experienced the distortion on with the old cartridge. I found out that the distortion was in the recording to some degree. The distortion was less but still there on S’s of some vocals, not nearly as bad though. The second record I played was Ryan Adams – 29. If you want to show off a turntables dynamic range, this is the record to play. The song Night Birds in particular is haunting and has all kinds of stuff to pick up.
Overall this cartridge sounds phenomenal! It destroys the stock Audio Technica that came with my turntable.If you want a sub $100 cartridge this is the one to buy.
They Still Press Vinyl 