Cheap Chinese cartridges

[Techman]

Originally Posted by Richie2211

Are these cheap Chinese cartridges suitable for a Dansette Conquest auto or Major?

See the second paragraph in my last post above.

It all depends on the amplifier - single stage or double stage. You need to check.

[Edward Huggins]

These cheap Chinese cartridges will be no good for the Dansette "Major". At best, it may only give a very weak output.

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by Boater Sam

If using these on a mono player, is it correct to connect both sides of the cartridge together providing they are in phase?
Presumably then when playing stereo records you get both channels?

Yes that's right
'
I have recently fitted a NOS Ronette cartridge to a Garrard RC80 deck. It didn't come with a pinout so I connected the two uppermost pins together and similarly with the lower ones. When I tried it on a 78 all I got were the crackles with only a very quiet signal underneath. It turns out that the correct pinout has the pins reversed and so I had connected it out of phase. A very odd effect when out of phase.

[Boater Sam]

I connected the 2 top and the 2 bottom pins and the output went up and sounds fine.
So there is no standard for the pin outs?

[Edward Huggins]

Whereas 30 years ago all this stuff was second nature, there now seems a whole new mass of confusion about record player cartridges which constitutes a growing proportion of this Site's audio equipment Posts.

Whether mono or stereo, how to connect them, what output type, where to source them, what stylus, how do they track... Yet most of our Stickys already cover all of these issues. How can we better signpost?

[dave walsh]

Apart from the typo Edward, I doubt that you can Nobody wants to absorb the info over time anymore or even has the time [so it seems]. It's a combination of instant gratification, fashion and follow the money. I could be wrong of course but there is a conspicuous lack of comment from the other side of the debate.

Dave W

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by Boater Sam

I connected the 2 top and the 2 bottom pins and the output went up and sounds fine.
So there is no standard for the pin outs?

That's what I did originally and I think it is usually the case but on the Ronette the +ve pins are diagonally opposite which is what caused the confusion. They are also just numbered 1-4. I suppose that getting it out of phase will just produce a "difference" signal hence I just got the crackles on a 78.