I do use a Michell TecnoDec and RB250 with Michell TecnoWeight (big improvement)

My cartridge is a Nagaoka MP110 (GBP 150?) and I just have my fourth stylus in use ;-)

So....I am very content with this combination!!

Oh yes and welcome to GSP

Jon

The tough part about suggesting a cartridge is that everyone has different tastes and priorities. Almost any high output cartridge suited for a medium mass arm (I think that's what you have) will work with the GA2SE. So you really just have to narrow the choices and decide what you like best.

Re: mats, I've never used a glass platter so I can't really suggest the best mat. Usually I would go with whatever the manufacturer suggests.

IME any mat can generate static - because the very act of playing a record involves friction. The best cure for static is to get at the source, which is usually air that is too dry. An easy thing to try is turning the thermostat down slightly, and no socks on carpet. Some folks that live in very dry environments will use a humidifier in conjunction with a hydrometer, or even an anti-static floormat.

Good luck.

Just stay away from high compliance ones.

It should work well with something like the AT-VM95ML https://www.audio-technica.com/en-gb/cartridges/type/moving-magnet/at-vm95ml - https://www.audio-technica.com/en-gb/cartridges/type/moving-magnet/at-vm95ml

I have one and it does a good job.

I used a Deflex Platter Mat when I was running a Systemdek IIX - I found that the added mass of the mat improved rotational stability.

When I bought the deck it had a felt mat, which I didn't get on with.

I'd experiment with rubberised mats

Systemdek IIX RB250 arm with Michell technoweight & VTA adjuster.(cork/rubber mat)Origin Live DC motor & ultra speed control.GS communicator 2+ PSU. Naim Nait 5i. Monitor Audio GS10.

Budget:400€

NAGAOKA MP200 

GOLDRING 1042

AUDIO TECHNICA VM750SH

GRADO Gold 3

From what I can gather the phono amp is lean,Amp neutral light on bass thump but defined.These statements please contradict etc; I listen to rock blues jazz acoustic and world little classical. Warm cartridges Grado Goldring , Punchy Nagaoka, AT clinical detailed ???????

   Thank you for time 

If the records are in reasonable condition and clean, the easiest upgrade you can perform is to keep your cartridge body and replace the stylus with a VMN95EN, VMN95ML, or VMN95SH. Of those the ML would be my personal pick. If you don't have a real record cleaning system I would choose one of the others, probably the EN.

Your phono preamp should be dead neutral so if you're getting a "lean" sound it's likely down to some other factor. I do think (subjectively) the VM95s sound a bit better on a slightly heavier arm though an 11g arm like a Rega arm should theoretically be fine. I don't know anything about your speakers, room acoustics, or the records you are playing. Those can be big factors. FWIW most speakers will have peaks and valleys in the response and folks are often quick to blame these things on the cartridge.

I am personally not a fan of Grado cartridges but a lot of people like them.

The AT 4 coil designs like the VM500 and 700 series really need careful loading (both resistance and capacitance) to get a neutral-ish sound. Otherwise they will be tipped up by +3dB or more at 10K or so. Many aren't willing to make loading plugs and the like so they should avoid these cartridges. The AT VM95s are a totally different design and don't have this problem.

The Nagaoka should work fine on your arm. Not my personal favorite, but again very popular. They have gotten fairly expensive in recent years.

The 1042 is considered a classic cartridge in many circles but I didn't love mine and moved on from it. You might like it though. Also commonly paired with medium mass arms and GS gear.

My 2 cents.

The RB250 is a fine arm but the Audiomods Classic 3 will be a significant improvement on it.

You'll notice the superior bearing quality the 1st time you hand cue.
Wiring & counterweight mods can improve the RB but the Audiomods is a major redesign

with only the arm tube left, which is the Rega's strong point.
I did something similar a few years ago & was surprised at the overall sound improvements.

I can't speak to the differences between an AM arm and a Rega arm, but if upgrading the arm and/or getting the existing arm rewired, I would try to make sure the shielding on the arm cable is as good as possible.

I know that sometimes Rega arms have less than ideal shielding on the stock cabling. If you check some old threads here you may find some topics on cable shielding.

I had a question about cartridges for the Reflex, I am getting a clearaudio Air concept with carbon fiber arm. 

I Really am torn between getting a clearaudio artist 

Moving magnet or the New Sumiko Bluepoint, I know the 

Bluepoint Evo iii pretty well and used it with a project RPM-9 

With Graham Amp 2SE and loved its fleshed out

Spot lit character as a HOMC, but is the clear audio 

Possibly better or have better synergy with 

The arm and the phono stage? Any help would be appreciated 

By the thread.

The Bluepoint carts have been around a long time. Made by Excel, IIRC. If you know you like them then they are a good bet for you. From what I can tell the Evo series was discontinued and now Sumiko is mainly selling the Songbird as a replacement. They still have the Blackbird which may be similar to the Evo series. IIRC the BB comes in either high or low output.

The Artist moving magnet cart looks like a typical CA MM job where they are scant on detailed info but are really just using an AT VM95 or 95 series generator with "elliptical" diamond then stick it in a wood or metal outer shell. My guess it is a cheaper bonded diamond, since they don't mention that it is nude. If it were they'd be harping on that fact. I'd rather just buy a cart direct from AT so you know exactly what you are getting.

In terms of the arm could you be more specific? Looks like CA makes more than one carbon fiber arm. There is the standard one which is 9g and the "Satisfy" which is 7g effective mass. They have more arms still. I would choose a fairly compliant cart on the lighter one. On the 9g arm you could go either way, but I'd probably avoid any cart with a very stiff suspension when it comes to either of these arms.

It is a satisfy Carbon Arm

I plan after the purchase to get Stack Audio

Auva EQs as well if that info interests you.
 

This one?

https://www.musicalsurroundings.com/products/clearaudio-satisfy-cf-carbon-fiber-tonearm - https://www.musicalsurroundings.com/products/clearaudio-satisfy-cf-carbon-fiber-tonearm

Effective mass is 7g.

HiFiForMetal wrote: Yes the blue point is still made, they now have it in  A covered aluminum body and have damped the resonances  More so it’s the same old cart as the EVOiii but With better dampening. I’m afraid the blackbird is no more I wanted that cart for a long time about 17 years ago.  And I’m not sure I like the songbird.

OK. Odds are it's not that much different than whatever they were selling years ago with the same Excel generator. If you know you like the cart already, then it should be a safe purchase.

HiFiForMetal wrote: I think the clear audio artist cart is made by them with AT Parts and it could be a VM95 generator but they wind  Their own coils there so my guess is they are modifying it  Significantly and of course adding an ebony shell,

A simple test with a multimeter to measure resistance and inductance would tell the truth. As for "winding their own coils", with an MM cart, that is highly unlikely. Virtually no one hand winds MM carts or high output MI carts because there are too many winds of coil to do. The process is usually automated and done on a machine. Of course dealer/salespeople will talk a lot of bunk so maybe that is where you heard that. I wouldn't buy it for a second. LOMC carts are a different story and usually have to have the coils hand wound. Of course those have very few turns of wire in the coils. 

As for CA's "mods" when the carts have been taken apart and the diamonds put on a microscope the truth is revealed. Their basic MM carts are nothing special and have cheap diamonds on them. The higher end ones usually have much better diamonds and cantilevers but they are often murky about what you get. Lot of marketing talk and bunk in the cart world with very few companies actually making cartridges, cantilevers, and diamonds at the OEM level.

HiFiForMetal wrote: The current bluepoint iii does look a lot like an Umami Blue by Excel, I think though the Bluepoint may be better

Excel is the OEM for those Sumiko HOMCs. Sumiko is just a brand name/marketing company. Excel makes MC carts for several brands and has for decades.

HiFiForMetal wrote: I was just wondering if the Clearaudio  Artist was particularly good with A graham Slee phono stage  Since obviously Graham’s stages do miracles  With moving magnets.

The Artist will work. Not a particularly good value in my book for the reasons stated. If you want an alternative I would be looking at the AT VM500/700 series, Ortofon OM or 2M series, maybe Nagaoka. Any of those should match well with your CA tonearm. The AT 500/700s will be trickier to load electrically for the best frequency response...I recommend short low capacitance phono cables and parallel resistive loading for those.

The Blue Point will also work. Western compliance at 10Hz will be much higher than the Japanese 100Hz spec as seen in tests done years ago by Miller Audio Research...

Yes that is the tone arm, the satisfy carbon 

It’s the main one that comes with the concept air, 

Other than the tracer which is more expensive.
 

As I said coils have to be hand wound usually on LOMC carts. That can be done in house or by a third party OEM depending on the specific product we are talking about.

When a manufacturer works with an OEM, they typically have a "menu of options" they can work from but often the selection off that menu often doesn't justify the heavy markup in my view. Witholding basic technical info is usually a red flag.

Pick and mix off a menu is certainly a long way off designing a cartridge from scratch. Very few companies do the latter.

I don’t know if magnet winding machines 

Are hard for them to get, or maybe they 

Are just doing a great matching and resonance 

Modding job. I don’t know it would be worth a call

To them to find out.

 I agree with you there a different level levels

To design work, some companies manufacture their own 

Speaker drivers and are able to engineer bespoke parts 

Because they are vertically integrated, the best of all 

Worlds. No doubt but not possible for every manufacturer 

Wilson audio uses scanspeak drivers which I find rather plain

however I do think they make a great product, not one 

I would buy, but I have heard them sound good. It’s because of 

The surrounding execution that makes it great.

Not all companies have the means of production and tooling to 

Be vertically integrated like that. I respect both approaches immensely. 

You can see how automated coil winding works in the link below. This is done for high output MM and MI carts in any factory making things at scale. Doing that many winds of coil by hand manually, with no machine involved would be stupidly inefficient. Machines have been involved for decades now.

In the same link, you can see LOMC carts with the coils being wound by hand under a microscope.

https://blog.son-video.com/en/2016/06/we-visited-the-ortofon-factory/ - https://blog.son-video.com/en/2016/06/we-visited-the-ortofon-factory/

Almost no cart company, even the largest ones, make their own diamonds and cantilever assemblies. Those typically come from Fritz Gyger AG, Orbray (formerly Namiki), and Ogura. Expert Stylus also makes a smaller amount of diamonds and Nagaoka produces some as well. If you don't believe me you can ask someone that works on carts for a living or visit the websites of the above companies and then look at their patent documents. It is also possible to purchase loose diamonds with no cantilever but few companies do that.

I have no problem with companies sourcing parts from third parties. Most will be forced to on some level. What I have a problem with are bunk marketing claims, withholding basic information, and wild markups relative to value.

I agree with you, bunk mark ups are bad

It’s the last thing high end audio needs, 

There are already too many accusations 

Of this in other sectors like in cables. 

I’m just saying that I don’t always rush to judgment 

I don’t know what’s inside nor have I done an 

ABX shootout with a VM95 type. I personally 

Think based on guitar pickup manufacturers or small 

Scale producers like Grado who are doing 

MM winding of coils it is possible, just watch Steve 

Guttenberg’s tour of Grado they show that they are 

Winding their own coils and Grado has less machinery to do 

So than clear audio by far, they are using the same winding 

Machines that guitar pickups use.

In this factory tour of Clearaudio he points out the MM

Coil winding machine which is automatic. 

https://youtu.be/ivCW8ooMoeA - https://youtu.be/ivCW8ooMoeA

It’s at 37:50

So I think we are in the case of a hybrid design 

Maybe they use AT bobbins or Sylii, but probably the 

Coils and compliant suspension,  dampening materials

And case are theirs. This is my guess.

But I agree their is too much stuff that should be 

More transparent and or not marked up. 

Notice how they focus on the machine only for a few seconds and don't really go into much detail. Personally I'm very skeptical that every CA MM is wound on that.

AT 95 and VM95 styli are also a perfect fit on many of their MM carts, though some do require trimming plastic off the stylus housing. This can be done with a nail clipper or X-acto knife, though I'm sure CA doesn't want people to know that. Instead they tell users the stylus is not replaceable at all and that you must buy a whole new cartridge.

It was exposed years ago with pictures so I have no doubt that several of their carts are based on AT 95 series generators of some sort. What's even funnier is that the diamond they put on the lower end models is a very cheap bonded stone as I said, and some CA users that received CA MM carts with their turntables noted that their carts tracked better with a new nude stylus or advanced tip from AT rather than the stock one. Put the stock one under a microscope and you'll see it is cheap stuff. Even a 30X loupe will show the bonded shank on those. If they were up front they would just say what the major and minor radii of the stone were and whether they are bonded or nude. But they don't do that...gee I wonder why.

As for Grado they are a small company and don't have the same economies of scale as bigger companies like AT and Ortofon. They will still use a machine of some sort to aid in winding...just as many "hand wound" guitar pickups are wound on a rig that uses a sewing machine or some other device to wind things much more quickly then wrapping everything 100% by hand.

Anyway I've made my point so no more posts from me on this topic.