I am bringing my old Dual CS-721 (vintage 1976) out of retirement. I had some work done on it around 2002 and it works great. The cartridge on the other hand needs some help. It currently has an old Ortofon LM30 cartridge. A replacement stylus costs about the same as a new cartridge of comparable quality. Therefore, I am looking at alternative cartridges for this table. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, especially from those using older direct drive turntables

i like the sumiko pearl I'm using at jp#s recommendation. It was $99, and sounds good to me

I have an old Grado moving iron cart on my Dual 505 and it sounds pretty nice. The Sumiko is definitely a good option.

The pearl is a nice cart. I would also recommend the 2M or the AT440MLa. I also really like the Shure M97xe.

I have been enjoying the Denon DL160 immensely.

what kind of tonearm you got on there? detachable headshell? S shape or straight? sorry I don't know much about dual tts.

what kind of tonearm you got on there? detachable headshell? S shape or straight? sorry I don't know much about dual tts.

Its the standard tonearm that came on the system. Straight 8.75" tubular tonearm with a detachable cartridge holder. Four-point gimbal suspension with adjustable counter-balance, tonearm height and anti-skating. Will accept any cartridge with a mass of 1 - 10 g. Unless you owned one (and had the manual at hand) there would be no reason to know any of that (unless you were practicing for an audiophile cocktail party).

Its the standard tonearm that came on the system. Straight 8.75" tubular tonearm with a detachable cartridge holder. Four-point gimbal suspension with adjustable counter-balance, tonearm height and anti-skating. Will accept any cartridge with a mass of 1 - 10 g. Unless you owned one (and had the manual at hand) there would be no reason to know any of that (unless you were practicing for an audiophile cocktail party).

Sounds like any cartridge recommended so far would be nice. I might as well throw in my standard DL-103 recc since thats what I always do about this time. Of course its output is very low, so you'd need a step up or an MC capable phono.

The AT440MLa is also always a good choice. Solid cart from top to bottom.

That's the exact same turntable I have, I'm using a Shure V-15 type III since I have a bunch of warped records and need a cartridge that can track anything. I'm pretty happy with the sound, it gets a bit strained & confused on loud complex orchestral works but otherwise I can't complain too much.

Thanks. Lots of good recommendations. I will track them down and try to make some decision. Right now the AT looks very interesting.

The Denon carts are very nice. They seem to be especially forgiving for tables that are less then perfect. The Shures are much the same.

So is there a reason to choose the AT440MLa over the AT440ML, other than the ML is no longer in production? The stated specs of the ML appear superior to the MLa?