M-447s for scratching

Whitelables as far as i know are not for scratching and more suited to EDM

A lot of peeps here will say M44-7s. I personally own them and I'm very happy with them. They perform just as well as orto's and previous to the release official serato / ortofon cartridge, it was reccomended by serato because of it's great tracking. It's also a lot more economical than ortofon q-berts or ortofon serato's.

Stay with the PANK OM's, (not sure if you have those or the Concordes)...

If you were strictly doing CV's, then I"d say it wouldn't matter, but since you're using Regular Vinyl too, I personally need to see the needle and where I'm putting it, as the Shure's are too boxy for me as far as direct needle dropping is concerned...

If you decide to go with 44-7s, post back here to let us know how they work out for you.

You have a point about where we drop the needle. Didn't give that much thought.

What are "PANK OM's"? I have the Concordes.

I'm weighing up the options, I only need needles for the Concordes, which are approx £35 each. If I get the Shure 44-7's they are £45 each and I guess I put them on my technics head shell?

Which will give me a nice rich sound for old records rare groove, jazz, etc? As well as useful for new stuff and serato? I guess I'm looking for an all rounder... And happy to pay more if necessary.

if you're happy to pay a lil extra and want to see exactly where you're putting the needle then the ortofon q-berts are a nice option imho



www.hifigear.co.uk

The Concordes are the "All-In-Ones", the OM's are where you get to mount the actual cartridge on a Headshell, (Technics if possible), but it allows you more control over the actual weight of the headshell, (either by adding or subtracting headshell weights), and for me, that's more control.

The Q-Berts and Serato Ortofons are too pricey for the same level of service.

if you already have 2 headshells, then you'll need to buy 2 cartidges, the cartidge comes with a liittle kit for you to put on your headshell

if you don't have a headshell, you can buy an all-in-one package with it pre-mounted on a technics headshell. These have been recently discontinued but they are still widely available in stores

This is my brethren who also uses the PANK OM's....there are a select few of us here who use them and swear by them against the vastly popular Shure series...

I always say the PANKS ain't for errybody....

Ha, I'm the king of playing "OLD RECORDS" on here, including 45's...and the PANKS haven't failed me yet.

As a matter of fact, I bought a separate needle JUST for archiving, and didn't like the sound it produced, as I realized that the sound I wanted was exactly what the PANKS were putting out...

So I use them both for archiving, DJ'ing straight vinyl, and also DVS DJ'ing.

It's been years since I've tested them, but the last jazz record I ripped with a 44-7 was very bass heavy and didn't sound as well as my Ortofons. At the time, I was ripping with one of their newer needles (Digitrack I think). I remember a debate where everyone settled on the Ortofon Nightclub being one of the best sounding needles, but this was years ago. I've also heard that the Ortofon Elektro was a cross between the Pink Scratch (which has excellent skip resistance and low record wear) and the Nightclub. I can't confirm this, but I was told this 2nd hand. The source was supposedly an Ortofon rep.

I don't know about anyone else, but most of us bought the OM version of the needle because eventually the plastic arm lift on the concorde version would eventually break. This was before people had Shure needle cases, but old habits die hard. I still don't trust those plastic arm lifts.

So sound quality wise, it looks as though I'm best sticking with my current setup?

Will get a new pair of needles in that case as mine are getting tired.

+1 all day

I have gone back and forth between both for many years.


More economical if you look at the price of buying one cartridge or stylus. But in the long run, the N44 needs replacing a lot more often than the Ortofon. I still have a little cartridge case full of old, but usable Ortofon styli. How many old N44-7 styli do I have? none...

I've had the DJ S blue for 10 years and they've been great, they still have their plastic arms intact and I've only replaced about 8 styluses in that time. I also started to buy the pink styluses for them and they track and sound just fine.

I did buy a pink cartridge when I bought the sl3 a few years ago, but don't really notice the difference between a DJ S blue fitted with a pink stylus, or the full pink combo when using scratch live.

Last month I went for a pair of pre-mounted shure m44-7 and 1 wasn't putting out the right channel from the outset (I know how to mount and rewire a cartridge before anyone shoots me down), so not a great start, but I guess every company puts out a lemon every so often.

The other works great though, so potentialy a great cartridge that'll last me a long time.

Dude, I am sitting here LMAO at that statement...

Props...

Yeah I needed a disclaimer on that post ;)

Thanks for all the help and discussion. I've gone for another set of Pink Ortofon Scratch Cartridges... I will compare with the old ones as I find it hard to tell how worn out mine are.

I have the same problem. I tried to keep track of mine, but I have no idea how old they are. The one way I know they're bad is when the diamond tip falls off, which is bad when you're live.

That's just a testament to show that they keep performing till the very end with very little degredation (sp?) during use!

It ain't for errybody....

i have the, pink concords scratch , blue concords dj s , black concord pro s , and they all seem to have pretty good tracking etc. My mate has the s120s serato concords they are pretty good . I think from memory they have a high Mv output like 10mv . The others i have pinks and blue think they are 7 ish area and the black pro s are very low like 5 or 6 from memory . but i have found a huge difference having the serato performance vinyl so much better tracking less drop outs etc etc .
But i have been looking at getting some shure m44-7s Seen really got reviews on them :-)

But i was talking to the ortofon man at a dj show called bpm and the design of the s120 serato needles are much better you dont need to be so worried about going in a club and worrying about high of tone arm weigh etc they pretty much deal with anything you throw at them. its the way the cantilever system works on the needle its stops the bouncing of the needle . So this might sound silly but only way i can think to explain , so if you had a stick hanging and you can swing it from left to right , You will have 2 rubber balls the same size that it bounces of on each side , so in theory it would just keep bouncing from one ball to the other the energy is still there causing jumps etc thats how the normall concords are . But with the s120 it has one ball smaller that the other so its disperses the energy stopping the bouncing of the needled making them less lightly to jump .

Might sound stupid but explained the best i can