Talk and share knowledge on rare records, sources of new samples, vinyl, diggin, etc
By dmarz45 Tue May 19, 2009 5:23 am
Ive been looking at the ortofon arkiv and the shure whitelable. What is the best needle for sampling? Im looking to spend less than $150
By bedouin Tue May 19, 2009 6:10 am
Both are sort of shitty if your budget is up to $150.

I just ordered a Shure M97xE. Very nice hi-fi cartridge that should sound better than the Arkiv even. I own an Arkiv and an M44-7 right now, but I'm switching to an Ortofon Q-Bert (for mixing and scratching) and the M97xE for listening, sampling, and ripping. I'll keep the M44-7 and Arkiv mounted just to have around.

Also look at the entry level Grado carts, Denon's carts, and even some of Audio Technica's higher end carts. This is a good starting point:

http://www.needledoctor.com/Online-Stor ... Cartridges

The M97xE is considered a good budget buy; you enter the high end cart world without paying $500 for a cart. Pretty decent. Here's the ones I would personally consider from the page I linked:

Grado Black, Green, Blue, or Red Prestige
Shure M97XE
Ortofon 2M Red
Stanton 681 EEE MK III (a cartridge with a very long history)
Audio Technica 120E

These are all really great hi-fi carts under $150. These are not DJ carts.