Replacement pickups, needles, stylii and belts These manufacturers and/or resellers make & sell generic replacement pickups, styli and/or belts for turntables, especially important for items where the original manufacturer is no longer with us or no longer making record player related products. For original styli please see the Pickups section itself, for pickup replacement for generic magnetic pickups we recommend budget Ortofon cartridges like the OM-5 rather that the "generic" ones the suppliers below provide. Not only are they better they are also in most cases cheaper. AstaticManufactures and sells a huge range of styli and replacement pickups, has recently stated to sell directly to end users via their homepage Expert Stylus Make specialised stylii for playback of 78'rpm records etc. Diamond Stylus Manufacturers of replacement styli for a variety of pickups, also sells some replacement pickups Mr. Stylus Has a huge range of replacement stylii, belts and pickups, especially noteworthy is their range of replacement pickups both original and OEM, that includes some very hard to find crystal and ceramic types. Catalogue also available in English Turntable Basics Sells all kinds of turntable accessories but noticeably sells replacement belts for turntables for USD 10 rather than the absurd USD 40 or so that some of the web based suppliers are charging Elex Atelier Specialices in Turntable belts but also stocks Pickups and related stuff. Radio Shack Stocks quite a range a replacement styli and cartridges, see here. Ceitron This company has pickups at really keen prices but more importantly belts at much lower prices than those that the specialist charge Ken's Electronics This company has also has belts at much lower prices than those that the specialist are flogging them at, also has some stylii Bic Belts Enrique Dépannage (France) Has a good selection of stylii in particular for mainland European makes Greenweld Electronic Retailer of surplus electronic goods, has stocks of belts for the lover end European turntables such as Philips, use the search facility for finding them as the pages are a bit difficult to traverse. Quad Styli The US company Garage-a-records has stocks of styli for quadraphonic pickups. 78rpm.com Sells tyli and pickups for use with 78 rpm records. Altai Stocks and distributes styli and pickups for low end consumer and semipro eqp. Needle doctor A nice store that sells a lot of styli and has a range of cartridges, including a nice stock of our favorite Ortofon, but sadly not the most budget range. Neddletins.co.uk For Gramophones only, sells and collects the tins rather than the needles per se, but he can fix you up with a new box if you need it. Fun site to browse also Miðbæarradíó (Ísland) Small electronic shop that has stylii and pickups in stock and can order what they do not have, excellent service Tonacord (Germany) PhonoPhono (Germany) Primarily a reseller of pickups etc.., especially esoteric units but they also stock replacement stylii for all the brands that they sell, and the homepage is a treasure-trove for the phono nut so visit it anyway. Catalogue also available in English Savalander Audio Goodwins (UK) Please send any factual corrections, dead links, information and/or links that you feel that should be on this page to the page maintainer but please note that I do not have an Internet access at the moment so there may be some time before I can answer.
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Bang & Olufsen
Had a range of cartridges that fitted the non-standard mount that was found on the company's turntables, while the lower priced models were MM's virtually the rest of the range was MI's although there may have been a MC in there somewhere, including the MMC-1. One of the models that are most unusual is the MMC 4000 from the 70's, it can be used with matrix 4 channel records and has a nude elliptical stylus. There were also older versions of the MMC20 such as the MMC20CL that are no longer in production, but it's unclear what difference there is between them.
Benz Micro
Was one of the the biggest producer of stylii in the 70's and early 80's (turning out 9 million a year), they automated the manufacture of the elliptical stylus and were thus able to offer them at prices that were usually associated with cheap spherical stylii, they also developed new methods of gluing the stylus to the cantilever. Introduced their first pickup the MC-3 moving coil model in 1985. The high end Reference was introduced in 1990 and featured a bottomless wooden body fabricated out of Bruyeré wood sourced from the Black Forest, it's a dense, fine grained wood often used in violin necks and suchlike and this wood has been used in all wood bodied cartridges from the company since, another peculiar arrangement of the Reference's body that is still present in other bodied pickups from the company is it's peculiar shape that stems from the fact that no 2 surfaces of the body run in parallel. The range was augmented by the company's statement product the Ruby in the early 90's it featured coil windings out of gold wire and a much more complicated coil arrangement than that of the Reference. A little later with cheaper wood bodied carts such as the LO.4 (you can read an old review of it by Audiophilia here), MO.9 and the H2O. A nude coil pickup called the Glider was introduced by the company in 1994 to much acclaim, was one of the best reviewed cart of it's day, it was available in 2 versions a high output variant that put out about 2mV and a low output version that put out something like 1mV. Note that the some models from the company are actually Moving Iron rather than MC but as everyone kept calling them MC's anyway the company started doing so as well (the properties of those 2 are similar in some respects), also note that unlike the current Series 2 that feature mass produced coil assemblies (and hence better) the carts listed here were all hand made in Switzerland.
Braun
Had a Moving Coil cartridge to go with their top of the line turntables in the early 80's, including the MC1-E, the company also had a mid end MM pickups available at the same time including the Mag 2-E, like with the MC1 the E stands for elliptical stylus, the cheapest turntable models from the company however featured Shure pickups.
Cello
Japanese carts from the early 80's.
Clearaudio
The original Aurum Alpha and in fact all earlier pickups from the company looks quite different from the current MkII models in that they are housed in a more or less standard metal coloured casing while the newer members of the family are all housed in a very unusual body made out of Fernambuck wood. But there has also been one "MkII" version replaced and that is the Signature, the original release of it looks identical to the current version but the new version has gold coils.
Compass
No real info on the maker or the models but one NOS retailer has been advertising the AT-X5E MM cart here, the unit features a elliptical stylus and a respectable audio specification, made by AT ?.
Cosmocord
Had a range of pickups for 78 record players including models such as the HGP-39-1, I am unsure if they used the standard slide in mount or needed to mate with arms from the company. NB the company later changed their name to ACOS (see above).
Decca See --> Discontinued Decca Pickups
Denon
There were some variants of the 103 on the market in the 80's and 90's such as the DL-103C, DL-103D, DL-103M on which I have no real information, and the DL-103S (or 103 Super) that had an improved specification versus the standard 103 but for some reason made no impact in the marketplace. The DL-301 was Denons lowest price low output MC in the 80's and had an hyper-elliptical stylus and was an audiophile bargain in it's day while the DL-303 was a mid end MC near the top of the product range and available at a similar time frame, it was unusually light weight for this type of cart and the weight reductions were archived by using a cobalt magnet and a composite cantilever, it was replaced by the DL-304 which was also something of a bargain in it's time at only around 2x the price of an Denon DL-160 and was itself dropped from the catalogue in 2004 although when this was written some dealers still had it in stock. The DL-300 appears to be the predecessor to the 301 but it's difficult to get hard data, the DL-305 was one of the company's high end models around 1980 and had a Cobalt based magnet rather than the Samarium based one that most other 3xx models feature, thin wall amorphous boron cantilever and an output of 0,2mV but otherwise similar. Please note that the 110, 160 and the 3xx series of pickups really need to have a loading of 100 ohms or more to sound right, if your amp does not supports it, use resistors..
The specifications for the DL-103S are : Frequency response: 20Hz to 60KHz. Output @ 5cm/s: 0,3mV. Tracking force: 1,8 grams. Channel separation: 25dB @ 1KHz or better. Channel balance: less than +-1dB @ 1KHz. Compliance: 25 x 10-6 cm/dyne. Output Impedance: 40 ohms. Cartridge weight: 7,8 grams.
For your reference the specifications for a standard DL-103 are : Frequency response: 20Hz to 45KHz. Output @ 5cm/s: 0,3mV. Channel separation: 28dB @ 1KHz or better. Channel balance: less than +-1dB @ 1KHz. Compliance: 5 x 10-6 cm/dyne. Load: >100 ohms. Output Impedance: 40 ohms. Tracking force : 2,2 to 2,8 grams. Recommended tracking force : 2,5 grams. Stylus 0,2mm spherical variant Cartridge weight: 8,5 grams.
The DL-300 technical specification are : Mount : Standard. Output @ 5cm/s : 0,3mV @ 1KHz. Tracking force : 1,5 to 2,1 grams. Recommended tracking force : 1,8 grams. Trackability :VTA : 22°. Stylus tip : Biradial Elliptical 0,002 x 0,007. Equivalent stylus tip mass :Cantilever : Tapered Aluminium. Weight : 4,2 grams.
The DL-301 technical specification are : Mount : Standard. Frequency response : 20Hz~60KHz. Output @ 5cm/s : 0,3mV @ 1KHz. Channel separation : 28dB @ 1KHz or better. Channel balance : Less than +-1dB @ 1KHz. Output impedance : 40 ohm. Recommended load : 100 ohm or more. Compliance : 13 x 10-6 cm/dyne @ 100Hz (Dynamic) or 35 x 10-6 cm/dyne (Static). Tracking force : 1,2 to 1,6 grams. Recommended tracking force : 1,4 grams. Stylus tip : Nude Hyperelliptical 0,14 x 0,07mm. Cantilever : Tapered Aluminium. Weight : 9,47grams.
The specifications for a DL-303 are : Frequency response: 20Hz to 70KHz. Output @ 5cm/s: 0,2mV. Tracking force: 1,2 grams. Channel separation: 28dB @ 1KHz or better. Channel balance: less than +-1dB @ 1KHz. Compliance: 13 x 10-6 cm/dyne. Output Impedance: 40 ohms. Cantilever : Tapered Aluminium. Cartridge weight: 5,8 grams
The DL-304 technical specification are : Mount : Standard. Frequency response : 20Hz~75KHz. Output @ 5cm/s : 0,18mV @ 1KHz. Channel separation : 28dB @ 1KHz or better. Channel balance : Less than +-1dB @ 1KHz. Output impedance : 40 Ohm. Recommended load : 100 Ohm or more. Compliance : 14x10-6 cm/dyne @ 100Hz (Dynamic). Tracking force : 1,0 to 1,4 grams. Recommended tracking force : 1,2 grams. Stylus tip : Nude Hyper Elliptical 0,07 x 0,1mm. Weight : 7 grams.
Digital Research
A label that appears to have been held out by Audio Technica, these pickups sometimes come up for sale as NOS but I have no further info on the rest of the range. The DR350 was an "universal mount" cartridge like most AT carts (technically a P-mount cart but came with an adapter that allowed it to be used as a standard mount cart), it's technical specification are : Frequency response: 15Hz~27KHz. Output @ 5cm/s: 5mV. Reccommended Tracking force: 1 to 1,5 grams. Channel separation: 29dB @ 1KHz, 18 @ 10KHz. Reccommended Load: 47K ohm.
The DR750 technical specifications are : Frequency response: 10Hz~28KHz. Output @ 5cm/s: 5mV. Reccommended Tracking force: 1 to 1,5 grams. Channel separation: 29dB @ 1KHz, 20db @ 10KHz. Stylus Tip: Nude BiRadial 0,0003 x 0,0007. Reccommended Load: 47K ohms. It's also an "universal mount".
DUAL
Lots of cartridges were should under this name especially in the 60's and 70's but it's doubtful that any of these were actually made by them, these were usually budget carts both crystal types with flip-ower stylus such as the TKS 670/8 and MM designs, much of the MM designs were manufactured by Ortofon including the TKS 49 S (S=sperical stylus all the other models featured an elliptical one), TKS 50 E, TKS 52 E and TKS 55 E, also the ULM 55 E ULM 65 E and the ULM 66 E, Ortofon makes stylii for all those pickups that they manufactured for Dual, you local Ortofon dealer should be able to order one for you if they do not have one in stock, see their replacement stylus page for the catalogue numbers etc., in those countries were the local distributor only handles a limited subset of their products (such as the UK) you might have to find a friendly dealer in mainland Europe to service you.
Dynavector
The first pickup from Dynavector was the high output 10X cartridge that has been produced with only minor modifications since 1978 or so, it created something of a sensation when it first came out since despite it being a high output cart that can be used with almost any phono input, it had specifications more similar to a low output one (high output cartridges have heavier coils and thus both worse audio and mechanical specs than low output ones). Those almost magical properties of the cart were due to the work of founder of the company, one Prof. Nobu Tominari but he had investigated the design of MC carts for years and to facilitate the manufacture of better high output carts designed a machine that allowed for tighter coil windings along with the use of thinner wire. The company introduced it's first high output carts the Karat Diamond and the Karat Ruby in 1979, those 2 were designed around the idea that vibrations from the stylus were not efficintly dispersed inside the cartridge body (you can red more about this here). The Karat 17D has along with the more expensive Karat 23R (Ruby) been the mainstay of the low output line from Dynavector through the years, the 23R was notable for it's use of a cantilever made out of a solid block of ruby and featured a hyper elliptical stylus, had an output voltage of 0,2mV and a recommended tracking weight of around 1,5gr (+-0,3rg). There was a variant of the cart called Karat 23 RS but I have no info on the differences. Hi-Fi Plus has a review of the recently deleted mid price DV-13D cart here, another recently deleted cart is the high end XX-1 that was their top of the line model until late 2001. Amongst the more recent low output carts are the XX-1 that was introduced in 1999 and replaced by the similar XX-2 in 2001, it featured the company's patented "Magnetic Flux Damping" technology.
ELAC
Well this is the inventor of the Moving Magnet pickup as we know it today, they made phonographic pickups right from the 50's and did not stop production until 1997, while their product range was mostly mid range MM units they did also make some higher end models that are somewhat sought after by collectors. Stylii for all of their older pickups is easy to get hold of however, the DOS company is the official manufacturer of styli for ELAC and they will sell via mail order to anywhere in the world, they also sell the original ELAC assecories such as protractor ect. Amongst the models from the company were the 796H24Sp and the 896H (80's), both feature a VDH-I type line contact stylus and are high quality MM designs (still highly sought after by many MM fanatics), the more expencive 896 has I gather a lower out put than the 796 but not unusually low, Elac MM designs often had an unusually high output (8mV or so). The EMM-130 and the EMM-170 were I believe amongst the last of the mid/high range of pickups that the company sold, the 170 is quite good if the specifications are to be believed.
The technical specification of the EMM130 are : Frequency response: 10Hz~20Khz. Output @ 5cm/s: 8 mV. Tracking force: 1,75 to 2 grams. Tracking ability: 70 to 80 µm at recommended tracking force. Compliance: 22 µm/mN. Channel separation: 22dB @ 1KHz or better. Channel balance: Less than +-2dB @ 1KHz. Stylus Tip: Elliptical 6 x 18µm. Cantilever: Aluminium. Recommended Capaistance: 500 pF. Load: 47k ohms. Effective Tonearm Mass : 12gr.
The technical specification of the EMM170 are : Frequency response: 10Hz~30Khz. Output @ 5cm/s: 5,6 mV. Tracking force: 1 to 1,25 grams. Tracking ability: 70 to 80 µm at recommended tracking force. Compliance: 30 µm/mN. Channel separation: 26dB @ 1KHz or better. Channel balance: Less than +-1dB @ 1KHz. Stylus Tip: VDH-II line contact 5 x 75µm. Cantilever: Boron. Recommended Capaistance: 300 pF. Load: 47k ohms. Effective Tonearm Mass : 6 to 12gr..
Elite Electronics
Introduced a line of MC and MM pickup designs in the mid 80's, these are obviously sourced from an OEM. The MC design was the low output 555 which was available in 2 variants, the basic MC555 that featured a spherical stylus and the MCP555 that featured a parabolic stylus with a Boron cantilever and thus gained a slightly better audio specifications. The MM designs were also mostly idential execpt for stylus also but for the 300H which was the cheapest model and had a slightly cheaper generator, the 400 and 500 however were identical except for the stylus tip itself while the top of the line 700 has a better cantilever as well. Note that the names of the carts are sometimes prefixed with EEl which is simply a shortening of Elite Electronics and that the specifications printed here are taken from a scan of a specification sheet downloaded from the internet, this scan has obviously been doctored and thus the reliability of the information cannot be guaranteed.
The MC555 and MCP555 technical specification are : Mount : Standard. Frequency response : 10Hz~20KHz +-1dB (MC555) and +-0,5dB (MCP555). Output @ 5cm/s : 0,14mV @ 1KHz. Load capacitance : 1000 pF Max. Recommended load : 100 ohms. Impedance: 3 ohm. Compliance : 8cu (vertical & horizonal). Tracking force : 1,8 to 2,2 grams. Recommended tracking force : 2 grams. VTA : 23° (MC555), 20°. (MCP555). Distance from top to record : 16,5mm (MC555), 17mm (MCP555). Stylus tip : Nude spherical 13 Micron (MC555), Nude parabolic 50 x 3 Micron (MCP555). Equivalent stylus tip mass : 0,38mg (MC555) & 0,2mg (MCP555). Cantilever : Titanium (MC555), Boron (MCP555). Weight : 7 grams.
The EEl 300H technical specification are : Mount : Standard. Frequency response : 30Hz~18KHz +-2dB . Output @ 5cm/s : 10mV @ 1KHz. Load capacitance : 300 pF. Recommended load : 47kohms. Impedance: 2500 ohms. Compliance vertical & horizonal : 15cu (300H). Tracking force : 2,5 to 3g. Recommended tracking force : 2,5 grams VTA : 25°. Distance from top to record : 18mm. Stylus tip : Nude spherical 15 Micron. Equivalent stylus tip mass : 0,9mg. Cantilever : Aluminium Alloy. Weight : 6 grams.
The EEl 400 & EEl 500 technical specification are : Mount : Standard. Frequency response : 10Hz~20kHz @ +-1,5dB. Output @ 5cm/s : 3,5mV. Load capacitance : 300 pF. Recommended load : 47kohms. Impedance: 2500 ohms. Compliance vertical & horizonal : 18cu. Tracking force : 1,5 to 2grams. Recommended tracking force : 1,8grams. VTA : 25°. Distance from top to record : 18mm. Stylus tip : Shanked elliptical 16,5 x 20 Micron (400), Shanked parabolic 75 x 10 Micron (500). Equivalent stylus tip mass : 0,4mg. Cantilever : Aluminium Alloy. Weight : 6 grams.
The EEl 700 technical specification are : Mount : Standard. Frequency response : 10Hz~20kHz @ +-1dB. Output @ 5cm/s : 3,5mV @ 1KHz. Load capacitance : 270pF. Recommended load : 47kohms. Impedance: 2500 ohms. Compliance vertical & horizonal : 10cu. Tracking force : 1,2 to 2 grams. Recommended tracking force : 1,8grams. VTA : 23°. Distance from top to record : 18mm. Stylus tip : Nude parabolic 50 x 3 Micron. Equivalent stylus tip mass : 0,2mg. Cantilever : Boron rod. Weight : 6 grams.
Electro Sonic Laboratories (ESL)
The pickups and arms from the stereo era from this company are unmistakeably Ortofon in disguise, the earlier models like the mono Concert and the C99 78' carts I am not 100% sure about, but they appear to be moving coil designs as well (this would mean that they are Fonofilm/Ortofon too?).
Empire Scientific
Made some good MM carts in the late 70's and early 80's along with some outsanding MI designs in the mid 60's (for the time), I believe they did not start producing cartridges until the early 60's (could be wrong there). Amongst their 80's carts were the 2000E MkIII, the E stands for elliptical and the more upmarket 600 LAC that had a line contact stylus and a more respectable audio specification of 20Hz 50KHz frequency response, have been unable to find concrete info on older carts such as the P-800 or EDR-9.
The technical specification of the 2000E/III are : Frequency response: 20Hz~20Khz. Output: 4,5 mV per channel @ 3,54cm/sec. Intermodulation Dirstortion: 0,1% for 2 to 20KHz @ 3,54cm/sec. Tracking force: 0,75 to 1,5 grams. Tracking ability: 32cm/sec@1KHz at 1g. Compliance: 20x10cm/dyne. Channel separation: 20dB @ 20Hz to 500Hz, 28db at 500Hz to 15KHz and 20db at 15 to 20KHz. Channel balance: Less than +-1dB @ 1KHz. Stylus Tip: Elliptical 5 x 7µm. Effective tip mass: ,6 milligram. Recommended Capacitance : 400 to 500 pF. Load: 47k ohms.
EMT-Franz
These pickups are historically interesting, EMT started out supplying Ortofon arms and pickups with their studio turntables but soon began modifying the shells and generators to suit their own purposes, in the end the company started making the pickups from skratcs and while they did have an obvious lineage from the original Ortofon pickups they also had a distinctive sound of their own. In the late 70's and early 80's a number of small European companies started modifying EMT designs to make them more compatiable with hi-fi equipment rather than with the professional gear that EMT was actually designing them for. While many of these whee only available for a short time some other companies florished and some started making their own pickups, noticably Van Den Hul but his pickups are not only distintivly EMT derived but he also designed a MC pickup for Benz Micro that is the basis of all of their current lineup (previous models from Benz where all Empire Scientific derived MI designs), this means that all the MC designs currently manufactured in Europe (as opposed to bearing European labels) are derived from the original Ortofon MC design from 1948. Basically most of the pickups EMT has produced in the past 25 years of the currently manufactured EMT's are available in a standard mount almost all of their older products were integrated into a headshell (with an EMT/Neumann connector, what else). Amongst older models are the OSF15 , OFS65, HSD 6 and XSD 15. The Studiotechnik Dusch company manufactures accessories for EMT pickups such as shells etc.
Esans
"Nielsen-Van Alstine Dynamically Stabilised Phono Cartridge", we have no clue, do you ?.
Euphonics See --> Euphonics Tonearm
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