Recommended cartridges or ones you at curious about

Charming..

There you are you see. I like the 2M bronze as it's a bit 'funky,' at least in a current Planar 3, but as withthe 1042, I suspect the wrong player/arm would kill it.

Sad that Matsushita long ago discontinued styli for it, although I think Jico may well fit the bill here. Hope you find the 20SLa at least half decent if the stylus isn't badly worn (I have to say that when an old Ortofon goes off due to wear, it goes off big time in my experience.

I think the 1000 series is massively overrated. They were viewed as decent but expensive back in the 80s. A 1040 was a hundred quid then, but you had to pay £350 for an AT OC9. Today you can pay more for a 1042 than you can an AT MC, including the OC9.

The 1000 series seems to like certain arms in the Rega RB series which seems to make them seem a bit marmite.

yep bearing part of the arm down with the 1042. end of side distortion was dreadful with the goldring ..i always do VTA by ear..forget all that arm level crap.VTA is crucial to get a decent sound .304 the bearing end has to be up.
never tried an eroica though
any good dsjr?

That would me giving that deck of yours a go.

I like the AT-95e in a 505-2 as well. Never liked the OMs and always viewed them as a throwaway.

Asperger's alert........

I don't know the OM3, but the 5 is a bit 'meh' to me. The OM10 is a scrappy, hf-noisy old thing and for me anyway, scrappier than the similar (inside) 510mk2 and certainly less couth than the previous VMS10E which is surprisingly capable despite rawness. The OM20 was an immediate upgrade in smoothness and general 'musicality' in a 505 deck (the Dual/Ortofon stylus was a more expensive OM10 substitude from memory). The better OM's (30 and 40) add significantly to hf refinement, but when the 500 range came out, with more solid bodies and in mk2 form, slightly lower compliance, we went over to these and liked them a lot (I have a pro 'GT' model similar to the OM pro and a 520mk2 which I love in my Dual 1019). Again, in a pretty humble Rega 3/RB300, it was easy to tell on string-tone, how much better the 530 and 540 are over the 520 and 510, which never sounded as rough to me as the Om10 did. these now live on in some markets as the Vinyl Master range at silly prices sadly..

Only in things I have a severe lifelong interest/obsession in. I was playing with this stuff ever since I could toddle (breaking things usually) I wouldn't know where to start with the things you get up to and certainly don't have the energy to do it.

He was born in 1938

S.

Best thing for the LP12 (no, not chucking it out) is the likes of a Tiger Paw top plate and under-strap at the very least - and *especially* a Cirkus if you don't have the bearing and suitable sub chassis already. The difference the latter especially makes to an ARO is huge - imo - and the messiness disappears. The Tiger Paw relieves the plinth of major structural needs and the remaining slight 'bloom' or 'darkness' disappears pretty much completely. It's fashionable in some quarters to totally despise the LP12 in all its versions and forms, but really, the root of this was most often jealousy that Ivor made it such a successful product with a long lasting cachet about it and could then charge almost what he wanted for it.

Was the PL71 only a good deck because RD said so? Nah, it was a good bit better than that, but maybe a suitable solid headshell is needed and then a counterweight outer sleeve if the existing one can't balance it out. Skeletal cartridges fill me with total dread in case of accidents, so please be bloody careful.

For me, once I had an MC there was no going back.

yep
all mm's sound distorted and spitty to me..will never own another one.