I'm looking into buying vinyl for DJ purposes, but before I start spending crazy cash on wax and scratching the crap out of it, I want to make sure that I've got it digitally archived (losslessly). I was wondering if there are some vinyl affictionados out there who might be more knowledgeable about cartridges and stylii than myself.

I don't want to spend more than a few hundred dollars if I can help it, but I'd like to know what I should look for in a cartridge with the sole purpose of creating vinyl archives, and what the best options are out there.

Also, does it matter how I set the table up with weight, anti-skate, etc.?

The "usual" answer nowadays is to get the Audio Technica AT440MLa ($90) or the Shure M97xe ($70). Both of them rank quite high as far as MM cartridges go. The needle drops I've done with the 440ML (a slightly different model) have been quite fine.

In general, if you don't want to shell out the $$$, you should stick with high-compliance moving magnet cartridges with elliptical or microline stylii. You should expect to spend $100 or less and it should last you about 1000 hours, or roughly 1500 record plays.

You might want to think about getting some stylus cleaner, too - some anecdotal reports have indicated a large decrease in stylus wear.

Tracking force and antiskate are fairly important. For tracking force, invest in a Shure SFG-1 tracking gauge ($20) or get a hold of a cheap digital scale with an accuracy in the 10-100 microgram range and a max weight of at least 5 grams. I hear they're selling on eBay for beans now. Use the upper end of the manfacturer's recommendations. For antiskate, just set it somewhere in the middle of the allowable range on your turntable, and leave it there unless you are noticing large amounts of inner groove distortion - otherwise you will spend forever trying to tweak it.

You should also get a hold of a cartridge protractor (PDFs are available at the Vinyl Engine), to set up proper cartridge alignment. That can make a pretty solid impact on fidelity.

Cool thanks for the info. I didn't realize about all the other hardware that you can use to help set things up correctly.

I'm actually surprised that a $90 cartridge is considered high end though, considering what some DJ cartridges cost.

As far as I know, DJ cartridges are different than the one used for playback. They have rounded stylus that makes the DJ easier to scratch and perform tricks while not hurting the vinyl. I suspect they won't sound as good because they can't dip into the deeper grooves, but no I haven't ABX it yet, I don't even have a turntable/vinyl anymore.

I've seen a visual explanation before somewhere...

Yeah, the ones that are targetted for scratch DJs are spherical, whereas hi-fi cartridges are generally elliptical, but DJs sometimes use elliptical stylii as well. It kinda depends on the play style.

Even non-scratch DJs have to worry about cue burn from back cueing (like when you sort of scratch over the first beat several times before throwing it in).

If you want "high-end" cartridges, start thinking in the $4,000 to $12,000 range.

Carts with spherical stylii generally use higher tracking forces (3-6g is not uncommon). This obviously reduces the likelihood of skipping and mistracking. What you lose in return is high frequency response - the spherical tip literally cannot track the high frequency squiggles effectively ("tracing distortion") - and the high tracking force may cause increased record wear.

Elliptical/microline stylii use much lower tracking forces (1-2g), and at least on paper, have a better frequency response. They also have a far higher lifespan than spherical carts. That's why they are generally advocated for hifi use. It's worth noting, though, that a lot of audiophiles recomment the Denon DL-103, which uses a spherical tip.

As Andy points out, the economics of "high-end" cartridges are rather stupid. $2000 buys you a low-end cartridge in many peoples' eyes. As far as actual objective improvements in sound go - good luck finding them.

I have the Audio-Technica 440 which someone mentioned above and it was a drastic move from the Sumiko Blue(?) and the Grado Black pickup that I had before. The inner groove distortion became alot less but did not go away completely, but still alot better. Another factor of the amount of inner groove distortion is the quality of the records pressing. Some records sound good, some bad and then there are those that sound excellent all the way from the outer to the inner groove(s). I use the pickup with a Pro-Ject 2.0 turntable.

Edit: Spelled Grade instead of Grado so I changed that.

Spending $4,000 on a cartridge is totally ludacris... if you have that much money to spend, you could likely just replace your entire vinyl collection with the original studio mastertapes or maybe DVD audio, anyways, and then not have to deal with vinyl issues.

But I'm actually surprised that for under a hundred bucks you can get one that is considered to sound very good. Currently I use a stanton Trackmaster 2, and I think it sounds quite awful, but all I can compare it to is the sound of the CD version of same records. I wouldn't trade in my CDs for records just yet, everything but sound being equal, but perhaps with a better cartridge, my opinion will change.

I do remember liking the sound of records I listened to as a kid much better than the CDs when they came out, but I also think that early CDs made from analogue source were badly done.

Any comments on the Shure M97xE? Apparently sure markets it as an audiophile cartridge, and it's under $100. Generally it seems that Sure products have the best bang for the buck.

grado cartidge are also excellent and not expensive in north america

Value is always relative; it is purely subjective.

The Shure V15 series has been considered a hi-end reference cartridge in some circles for many years, although there was some controversy about the model IV. The V15VxMR went for about $350 if I remember correctly, but may hard to find. Shure said the somewhat exotic materials that went into it are no longer available and discontinued production, not too long ago. The M97xE specs aren't quite as good, but TT and arms run from $100 to $75,000 too, so some combinations may be "ludacris (sic)".

another question that I have is this:
Do you need to have a special preamp between your turntable and your audio interface, or would it work to simply connect the turntable directly to a professional audio interface?

If that is the case, I'd wonder where you would ground the turntable...

Having to connect another preamp means more potential for problems and sound degradation in the audio path... so I'd like to avoid it if possible.

A phono preamp is required between the cartridge and the soundcard input. I suppose there is always some potential for malfunctions, but the signal won't be worth anything without it. It will be far too low a voltage to make anything approaching a decent recording, and it won't have the correct RIAA equalization. While it is possible to apply the equalization is software, it is harder to get a decent recording without the equalization in the proper place in the analogue signal path, and you still need the rest of the preamp regardless. The TT is grounded to the phono preamp.

Okay... that means that I"ll need to get a good quality mixer. I've got a real POS worn out Numark "starter" mixer, but I hardly think that'll be my best choice. Still, it probably won't be as critical a factor in determining quality as the cartridge choice.

Yeah, anything electromechanical has much greater impact on sound quality than any electronics/DSP stuff. You could even build your own phono preamp with a OPAMP IC and some "bird food", and I think any RIAA preamp at hand will do, such as the one in your old mixer. Although, for backup ripping, there should be obviously no high noise levels or fancy DSP or compression going on in the mixer.