By Kashfia Kabir
Contributions from Ketan Bharadia
An easy way to upgrade your record player
Jump To:
- Quick list
- Best budget MM
- Best mid-price MM
- Best mid-price MC
- Best premium MM
- Best premium MC
- Also consider
- How to choose
- How we test
Looking to upgrade your turntable? That's great, but you might be able to improve the sound of your current record player simply by switching in a new cartridge, saving you the time (and money) of searching for an entirely new deck.
Cartridges come in two types: moving magnet and moving coil. Moving magnet (MM) cartridges have a cantilever which transfers mechanical vibrations picked up from the record groove straight into movements of the cartridge's magnet. This movement of the magnet relative to the nearby wire coils induces current in those coils, which is then amplified and turned back into sound by the speakers. To use an MM cartridge, your amplifier will need an MM phono input to boost and equalise the low-voltage signal.
A moving coil (MC) cartridge, meanwhile, has a fixed magnet and mobile coil. This coil moves within the magnetic field created by the fixed magnet, generating an electromotive force. Because the coil's moving mass is lighter than that of a magnet there is less inertia and so the increased potential of resolving more information from the record groove. But do note that these types of cartridges tend to be more expensive and have a much lower output than MM types. To use an MC cartridge, your amplifier or phono stage will need the necessary gain and ideally the loading adjustments needed for this cartridge type.
We've included both types in our list of the best cartridges, which spans budget to premium models. We have been testing turntables and cartridges since the beginning of our time (well, since What Hi-Fi? was founded in 1976), and every cartridge on this list has been tested by our experienced, in-house reviewers with the appropriate turntable and system. You can find more in-depth advice on how to choose your cartridge and find out how we test cartridges, or simply scroll down to check out our top picks.
The quick list
1. Goldring E3
The best budget cartridge we've heard, with its capable, refined and expressive manner working with most affordable turntables.
Read more below
2. Sumiko Rainier
A fun, dynamic and musically cohesive cartridge that will lift your spirits and the performance of your turntable, provided it's of a good quality.
Read more below
3. Ortofon Quintet Blue
Agile, dynamic and precise, this is great value for an affordable moving coil model, and needs a suitably talented phono stage to shine.
Read more below
4. Vertere Sabre MM
Yes it's pricy, but it's an incredibly fun performer that balanced energy and rhythmic prowess with fantastic insight and control. Pair with a premium deck and you'll never stop dancing.
Read more below
5. Pro-Ject Pick-it DS2
A robust, dynamically expressive, composed and entertaining MC cartridge that's worth every penny of its high asking price.
Read more below
Best budget moving magnet cartridge
1. Goldring E3
What Hi-Fi? Awards winner. One of the best budget cartridges we've heard – a fine all-rounder.
Specifications
Moving Magnet: Yes
Moving Coil: No
Cartridge weight: 6.9g
Nominal tracking weight: 2.0g
Tracking weight: 1.5–2.5g
Reasons to buy
+ A refined performer Expressive Plays nice with other kit
Reasons to avoid
- More premium models available
This impressive Goldring E3 is a cinch to fit and is compatible with plenty of turntables, making it a very versatile cartridge indeed. The sound is clean and precise, with plenty of clarity and power where required. It also handles rhythm well, and has attack in spades. The perfect accompaniment to many a midrange deck and easily one of the best cartridges we've heard at the affordable end of the price scale.
Read the full Goldring E3 review
Best mid-price moving magnet cartridge
2. Sumiko Rainier
What Hi-Fi? Awards winner. Fun and affordable – what’s not to like?
Specifications
Moving Magnet: Yes
Moving Coil: No
Cartridge weight: 6.5g
Nominal tracking weight: 2.0g
Reasons to buy
+ A full bodied, entertaining presentation Good sense of punch and power Easy to fit
Reasons to avoid
- Demands careful installation Needs a good record player
Sumiko knows plenty aboutcartridgemanufacturing. The company was founded in 1982 and continues to build all of its cartridges in Japan to this day. The Rainier moving magnet sits at the more affordable end of the company’s Oyster range and looks to be a good choice for those itching for that first upgrade to theirturntable.
This Sumiko is a thoughtful design that’s easy to fit thanks to captive nuts inset into the body and sensibly squared-off edges that make fitting and alignment a breeze.
Once up and running it's a surprisingly musical and engaging performer. Detail levels are good, but it’s more the cohesive way that the Rainier delivers all that information that makes it special. We hear plenty of punch and a great dose of dynamics when it's required. In a carefully chosen system, this is a superb performer.
Read the full Sumiko Rainier review
Best mid-price moving coil cartridge
3. Ortofon Quintet Blue
What Hi-Fi? Awards winner. An excellent moving coil cartridge that's very modestly priced.
Specifications
Moving Magnet: No
Moving Coil: Yes
Cartridge weight: 9g
Nominal tracking weight: 2.3g
Tracking weight: 2.1–2.5g
Reasons to buy
+ Detailed, precise Plenty of expression Simple to fit
Reasons to avoid
- Demands the right kit
Ortofon has been making turntable cartridges since 1948, and it seems like all its expertise went into this one. The Quintet Blue moving coil is a true five-star product: simple to fit, not too heavy, so easy to balance out, and capable of a sound that's worth every penny of its asking price. It's an agile sound, with a high level of sonic precision that's brimming with detail. Plenty of refinement is evident too, and it's rhythmically surefooted with a good sense of attack.
Just make sure you partner it with the right kit, otherwise it'll be like fitting pram wheels to a Ferrari.
Read the full Ortofon Quintet Blue review
Best premium moving magnet cartridge
4. Vertere Sabre MM
A premium moving magnet design that's fun, insightful and entertaining.
Specifications
Moving Magnet: Yes
Moving Coil: No
Cartridge weight: 10.3g
Nominal tracking weight: 2.0g
Reasons to buy
+ Musical and organised presentation Expressive dynamics Easy to fit
Reasons to avoid
- Priced deep into moving coil territory
The Sabre moving magnet is a carefully considered design, as we’ve come to expect from Vertere. That bold orange body isn’t just for show. It’s machined out of a solid block of aluminium for rigidity and clamps onto the generator structure with four bolts rather than being glued on performance and alignment grounds. The cartridge body’s top is raised at three points to ensure a solid and even contact with the headshell, and the front of the top even has a ridge to aid easy alignment.
The result is a bold performer that's confident without being in any way overbearing. Listening to Orff’s rambunctiousCarmina Burana,we can’t help but be thrilled by the energy and drive of the music. We said in our review: "The Sabre delivers this dramatic piece with all the gusto it demands. We get explosive dynamic peaks coupled with an impressive sense of control."
While the Sabre's high £845 / $1199 / AU$1695 price puts it deep into traditional moving coil territory, this is one premium moving magnet we can really get behind.
Read the full Vertere Sabre MM review
Best premium moving coil cartridge
5. Pro-Ject Pick-it DS2
This moving coil cartridge bursting with talent and musicality.
Specifications
Moving Magnet: No
Moving Coil: Yes
Cartridge weight: 9g
Nominal tracking weight: 2.2g
Tracking weight: 2.0–2.5g
Reasons to buy
+ Entertaining sound Simple to fit Gets the best out of any genre
Reasons to avoid
- A little excitable for some
The Pick-it DS2's body is made of a synthetic polymer and shaped by laser, in a bid to create a low-resonance base and help performance. And it works. The sound is thoroughly robust and dynamically expressive, with plenty of punch and bags of bass. The presentation is composed, and there's a ton of detail to get your teeth into. It's a doddle to fit and align too, thanks to its square-shaped body. Costing £599, truly capable and musical performer.
Read the full Pro-Ject Pick-it DS2 review
Also consider
- Vertere Dark Sabre: Proving a high-end moving magnet cartridge can compete with the best of moving coils, the Dark Sabre MM delivers an impressively punchy and dynamic sound and digs out phenomenal levels of detail.
- Nagaoka MP110: A cheerful budget upgrade from a reputable brand, this MM cartridge delivers a sweet midrange, subtle detail and dynamics beyond its price point. We'd like less edgy treble and more bass weight, though.
- Ortofon 2M Blue MM: If you want a step up from the budget Ortofon 2M Red, the mid-priced Blue model is a more serious affair with better grip, timing and bass weight. We'd like it to dig out greater insight to go with that even-handedness.
- DS Audio DS-003: What's an optical cartridge? We didn't know either until we tested this unique, high-end cartridge that shows there is a third option for cartridge types, and it sounds fantastic when it comes to clarity, resolution and bass weight.
How to choose the right cartridge for you
When choosing the right cartridge for your turntable, it's important to ask how much should you spend on a cartridge in the first place. As a rule of thumb, we suggest your cartridge's price should be about a quarter to a third of the price of your turntable. For instance, if you have a £200 turntable, then a £50-£70 cartridge should be adequate, while a £650 turntable (such as the Rega Planar 3) will require a cartridge that's about £150-£200 (such as the matching Rega Nd3 cartridge).
We have a more in-depth guide on how to change and fit a new cartridge toyour turntable, but in general, most cartridges will fit onto most tonearms; you'll just need an alignment tool and a tracking force gauge if fitting the cartridge yourself. If you have a high-end turntable, it’s worth asking the dealer to set it up for you.
There are two types of cartridges – moving magnet and moving coil – and which type you go for will depend on the level (both in price and quality) of the rest of your system. For most turntables below £1000, it's best to stick with moving magnet (MM) cartridges. At this level, the partnering amplifier and phono stage can be of varying quality, and a moving magnet will put less of a spotlight on your phono stage's quality because it has a higher output.
If your turntable is at about £1500 and above, then it's worth looking into moving coil (MC) cartridges. At this higher price level, the partnering phono stage and amplifier in your system will need to be of a certain higher quality level too, and you will reap the rewards of an MC cartridge more in this context.
Many standalone phono stages and amplifiers (or streaming systems) with phono stages built in will quite often support both cartridge types. However, it's worth bearing in mind that even if a budget phono stage can support MC cartridges, it may not be worth investing as it likely won't be of good quality to show the benefits. Your phono stage has to be of a certain quality (and therefore higher price point) for the advantages of the higher-priced MC cartridges to be apparent in your system.
And lastly, you don't necessarily have to match turntable and cartridge brands, but many manufacturers that design their own cartridges (e.g. Rega, Vertere) tune them to match their own turntables. But there are plenty of cartridge makers whose models can be used with any turntable, especially when you get to high-end models – just make sure you read up on reviews (such as ours, of course) to ensure the sonic characteristics will match.
How we test cartridges
What Hi-Fi? has been reviewing turntables and cartridges of all types and across budgets since the magazine started in 1976, and we are proud to do all our testing in-house. We have state-of-the-art and acoustically treated testing facilities in London and Reading, where our team of experienced reviewers test everything from TVs to turntables, including cartridges.
We are always impartial in our testing and ensure we test and hear every cartridge at its optimum – fitted to the appropriate turntable and phono stage at its price level, and all placed on a sturdy and level surface. We make sure the cartridge is fitted correctly using the required tools and give them plenty of run in time before serious listening. We use each cartridge being tested in its best use case with the right electronics, as well as try out a few different options to see how it copes with a variety of products. We spend ample time testing each cartridge, playing a variety of records and genres of music to get the full picture. Here's a selection of the best vinyl records we use to test all things turntable-related.
What Hi-Fi?is all about comparative testing, so we listen to every cartridge we review against the current leader in its price point to gauge how it compares to the best-in-class competition. We keepWhat Hi-Fi? winnersand a range of cartridges in our stockroom (as well as a variety of turntables) so we can always pit new products against ones we know and love, and we do our best to review as many new models in as many markets as possible to ensure our contextual knowledge is the best it can be.
All review verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole rather than an individual reviewer to eliminate any personal preference and bias, and to make sure we're being as thorough as possible. There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdict, withWhat Hi-Fi?proud of having delivered honest, unbiased reviews for decades.
You can read more abouthow we test and review products onWhat Hi-Fi?here.
- These are the best record players for every budget
- Moving magnet vs moving coil cartridges: which is right for you?
- How to change the cartridge on your turntable
- Check out the best high-end record players we've tested
- How to get the best sound from your turntable
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Kashfia Kabir
Hi-Fi and Audio Editor
Kashfia is the Hi-Fi and Audio Editor of What Hi-Fi? and first joined the brand over 10 years ago. During her time in the consumer tech industry, she has reviewed hundreds of products (including speakers, amplifiers, turntables and headphones), been to countless trade shows across the world and fallen in love with hi-fi kit much bigger than her. In her spare time, Kash can be found tending to an ever-growing houseplant collection and shooing her cat Jolene away from spinning records.
With contributions from
- Ketan BharadiaTechnical Editor
2 CommentsComment from the forums
Ozapata Hello
With all due respect, I think that knowing which is the best cartridge is subjective because you can choose any of the 10 brands mentioned and try them on pressed vinyl (the 70s to 90s) in the United States, Latin America, Germany, Japan or England and you will notice that the listening response is not the best in some cases; you must have a collection of cartridges that fit every need.Reply
Mrs.Wright Audio-Technica Canada has recently changed distributors. They used to use Erikkson Audio, but now are using a third party fulfillment center. Products are being shipped out of a Mississauga warehouse. Products that are returned are visually inspected and restocked as new and resold as new. Whether you're buying directly from AT Canada, or through an authorized dealer - the inventory comes from the Mississauga 3rd party logistics warehouse. I would strongly recommend avoiding Audio Technica products because there's a very strong chance you'll receive a previously used item.
Reply