Stowski Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I appreciate I am a brand new member here, and so it is a little presumptuous to start with a question/advice without contributing first! That said if anyone can provide any, it would be greatly appreciated!! I have recently purchased a second hand Rega P2. As I understand it the best way to distinguish the model is that it had the straight tonearm (SB250 I believe?) and its model printed in green. It currently has an old revolver cartridge on it (no model number on it) and I want to upgrade this just to remove any worries in my mind that it may be damaging my records (I’m not 100% on how it sounds – hence my concern). I’m looking for a budget-ish replacement (ideally spending up to £50) for this. I have seen some recommendations elsewhere for ortofon cartridges at the higher end, which are a bit beyond my budget. I have also read that you have to be careful with this TT due to the weighting of the tonearm? (I thought this could be adjusted but just thought I would check). My set up (if it helps) is: Rega P2 Wharfdale 10.1 Cambride Audio A1 (MK1) Behringer PP400 Preamp Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allenh Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Firstly are you sure it's a Revolver cart and does it just need a clean? And is it all set up properly? but for that money a lower end Shure or Audio Technica or if you can push the budget a bit a lower end Nagaoka or Grado. Your turntable and amp are good enough for a decent cart but I'm not sure how good your phono stage is although I expect it's good enough for the lower end carts from the makers above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stowski Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Thanks for getting back to me. Nearly 100% it’s a revolver cartridge, which I did think was odd as I tried to google the model and came up blank – do they even make cartridges?? Good to know and I appreciate the advice. The preamp is definitely the area I’ve spent the least money, and would look to upgrade in the future but for now I just wanted to get it up and running. Of the above are there any that are standouts for circa £50? (appreciate the Nagaoka and Grado are slightly more which should be fine) I have seen Nagaoka’s mentioned on here a fair bit so would lean towards them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allenh Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Revolver have made all sorts of stuff and you do see them every now and then but yes they are rare. Generally you get what you pay for with cartridges but they are all going to sound much of a muchness until you upgrade the phono stage. Have a look out for the on board phono stage you can get for that Cambridge amp, its a board that fits inside and they do come up on ebay etc every now and then but other than that get a modern Cambridge one or better still a Musical Fidelity one. The Shure is probably the most well rounded and easiest to live with but with the Grado and the Nagaoka you have a very easy upgrade path as you can fit better styli in the same cartridge body, you can do the same with the Shure and some of the Audio Technica's but not to the same degree and with the Grado you can go a long way up the tree stylus wise with the same body Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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