Nice Japanese Classic MM Cartridge for Only a Few Quid

[Cressy Snr]

My Stanton 890SA with it's 4 gram tracking weight had, not surprisingly, worn out its stylus after around 12 months.

Perusing Mantra Audio I thought I had better get a proper hi-fi cartridge with a bit lower tracking force.

I came across an intriguing little deal on a Sontra 500 EXN moving magnet cartridge for £30. This is a clone of the classic Excel S70EX matrix SQ/QS quadrophonic cartridge, rebadged for the swiss market.

Well I couldn't argue with the price so I qrdered one yesterday and it arrived this morning by return of post.

Sporting an extended 0.2 x 0.8 elliptical stylus, very light cantilever, giving a response to 35KHz, it sounds excellent for the price, with great extension at the top end and superb tracking at 1.5gm.



If you want kick-ass dynamics and Shure M3D welly, then don't buy it, but if you like subtlety, detail, widescreen soundstaging and track-anything security then this is a great cartridge. Musonic also do a Shibata stylus for it for £40 that'll take the HF tracking out to 50KHz, so making for even better end of side performance than the EXN version.

Worth a punt if you need a spare after you break the cantilever off your Kontrapunt.

Steve

[Tucker99]

I am not familiar with that cartridge brand but it certainly sounds like its worth having a bash.

The lower priced cart in North america that everyone is yapping about (and buying) is the Shure m97xe which Amazon is selling for about $60, so say about 40 quid. Wonder how the two would compare?