Just picked up a mint Dual CS 505-3 for my vintage system and over the next couple of weeks will be looking at buying a cartidge for it. Most old timers here know what my music preferences are and the system it will be in will vary from time to time. At least for now it will be with a Sansui 6060 receiver and Boston A120 speakers...
Originally it came with an Ortofon but I'm not sure that is the way I should go. Cartidges by Audio Technica and Shure come to mind with this table for me....any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated and welcomed.
The arm is meant to accept a low mass, high compliance cartridge type. Anything other than that variety of cartridge will change the arm/cartridge resonance and you might find you have problems tracking even slightly warped discs - which is about every disc to some extent. Both the Shure and the AT cartridges have a higher mass than the Dual arm was meant to accept. The AT's, in general, are still too low in compliance. Though the arm obviously won't accept a MC cartridge with ease, choose a MM with low energy put back into the arm. The most obvious exclusions would be the Linn and Rega cartridges.
Low mass is almost extinct in cartridges at the moment. The Ortofon OM series is about all that's left that I'm aware of. OK but not anything special. The Shure's have the compliance numbers to work with the Dual arm. I'd probably go with a M97, if I went with Shure, and strip whatever excess weight I could from the cartridge. Remove any attached stylus guard, if there is one. The Grados also have compliance numbers that would work with the Dual and shouldn't have any hum problems. But Grado has updated all their cartridges in the past few years. I never had a problem with a metal body Grado on my VPI. When I replaced my old Grado with a new wooden body unit, I had minor hum issues. Check with the dealer before placing a Grado on any table.
If you don't want either of those two, ask the dealer for the lowest mass, highest compliance cartridge available. You can always add mass to the Dual arm to allow wider compatibility but additional mass goes against the Dual arm's basic design.
OK, just received and installed the Ortfon 2M Red. Wow this is a very good table and the Red is an excellent budget cartridge. I read a review that said that it tended toward the bright side which scared me a bit, whoever wrote it hasn't listened to alot of MC cartridges. this bad boy is very neutral and clean. Doesn't handle complex passages like the big boys but tracks very nicely. I can't imagine how good the Blue is. This combo equals the 3rd best analog front end I've had and in fact rivals the P3/Elys 2 combo (due more than likely to the Elys not the P3). I have some running in to do before passing final judgement but there is definitely synergy between the table and cartidge...yippie!!!!
I'd guess the Blue is about as good as I would want to go with this table, however I'm satisfied with this one for now. Looking forward to your impressions of the Blue.