Audio-Technica AT440MLA Audio Technica AT440MLA Dual-Moving Magnet Phono Cartridge

Where can I find Audio Technica AT440MLA Dual-Moving Magnet Phono Cartridge

Why can't all cartridges track this perfectly???By Lypo SuckAfter years of hitting my head against the wall in total frustration, I *finally* found the right cartridge for me in Audio Technica's AT440MLa. Let me explain why life was so frustrating, depressing, and difficult before the 440MLa. All my life, I was vexed by the fact that the inner grooves of most LPs sounded distorted and/or sibilant. Inner grooves of some LPs in my collection distorted so harshly it rendered them unlistenable. I'd track down new or minty copies of said albums, assuming my LPs must be worn or something, but even brand new copies would often have at least a little sonic degradation on those last tracks. Despite being an avid vinyl junkie, the fact that I couldn't find a way to remedy this forced me to wonder if I should concede defeat, admit that maybe vinyl *is* the inferior medium, and start replacing some of my favorite albums with CDs. Over the past few years, I grew increasingly determined to solve this problem. Affixed to my Denon DP-51f was a Grado Gold, which had a wonderful sound but it couldn't track the inner grooves of an LP if its life depended on it. The Grado's performance could best be described thusly: 1st three tracks sounded positively beautiful, confirming all that is good and glorious about the sound of vinyl; full, rich, detailed, and a smooth, pleasing, lively sound. Fourth track begins to show signs of degradation, maybe some sibilance, a bit of distortion, but usually still listenable. But that last song on the record would often sound terrible; sometimes a heinously distorted, muck-ed up nightmare. Just thinking about it still stresses me out. I replaced the Grado with a Shure M97xE, which came with recommendations from nearly everybody in the audio world, even some hardcore audiophiles. Right away, I was impressed with its full sound and flat, almost warm frequency response. But once again, it just couldn't track those inner grooves to save its life. It did do a slightly better job than the Grado, but I thought that overall, the Grado had a better, sweeter tonal quality on the tracks that it *could* track successfully. Meanwhile, I acquired a Technics SL-1400, which came with a Stanton 680 HiFI that was somewhat unimpressive, but worth noting because of its strange problem with sibilance in the *outer* grooves. Yes, it actually did okay (better than both the M97xE and the Grado Gold) with inner grooves, but for some reason the outer grooves were absurdly sibilant. This one had great difficulty with wide grooves, especially 12" 45 rpm EPs. Briefly, I acquired a Rega P3 with the Rega Elys 2 cartridge. The venerable Rega had a nicely detailed sound, but once *again*, performed just as badly as the Grado and M97xE when tracking the inner grooves. That's right, an extremely reputable $700 turntable and a $250 cartridge made zero improvements as far as trackability! It sounded great on those first 3-4 tracks, but still rendered those inner grooves distorted and sibilant. To be fair, the Elys isn't the best cartridge in its price-point, but still - $250 for a cartridge that can't track inner grooves? Are you crazy? How can Rega live with that? Enter the AT440MLa, which I first connected ... »» Read more about Audio Technica AT440MLA Dual-Moving Magnet Phono Cartridge.

Price: $299.95 » Get Discount Price