Best Needles for........

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WackAttacka

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Hey guys and gals

I need some advice... I spin hip hop and dark jungle. So i Use m44-7's for my hip hop but what is the best needle and cart for dark jungle.
I'm guessing it will most likely be an Ortofon but which one?

thanks
 
Personally I use the Dj's. They are cheaper and the difference is not that big.
Tracking is what you can expect from Ortofon : excellent.
Of course if you compare them to M44-7 it's definately another league, but you gain in sound clarity in my opinion.
 
have you used 44-7's, is the sound quality noticeably better! I'm going to buy a pair! I just need to find the right ones, I love my D&B and I need the best!!!! but if there isn't much of a dif then i may as well stick with tha 44's
 
i have owned m447s and ortofon pro-s's. i didn't notice much of a difference, and the tracking on the ortofons sucks compared to the shures, i have got the concordes weighted as much as possible and it still skips, with my m44s, never.
 
1) You are talking about the pro's, the lowest of the Ortofons. Sound quality is noticeably better than on pro's.
I find the M44-7's to emphasize the mid frequencies compared to the Ortofons, and it gives a harsher sound IMHO. I prefer the Ortofon sound.
As for the skip resistance, there's no doubt the M44 are the absolute top in tracking, but the Ortofons aren't bad either. I've never had any prob with them and I don't weigh them at max.

Come to think of it, most of the time D&B dj's mostly use the same needles as hiphop dj's, because the spinning style is somewhat similar (for example many turntablists are D&B dj's, lot's of scratches and beatjuggling). Seriously the advice I give you is : if you're happy with the sound the M44-7's produce for hiphop, you'll be happy with the sound for the D&B. If that's the case, just stick with your M44-7s and use the money for records (because 2 Ortofon NC's cost a lot, WAY different price range than M44).

I prefer the Ortofons because they sound better to me, but to my style of music. Hiphop and D&B/Jungle already sound harsher than trance, so usually the dj's that spin those styles prefer the sound of M44s anyway. Might be your case too.
 
but wouldn't you think that for all that extra money you pay, the ortofon's would be in fact noticable diffirent. Like don't get me wrong i love my 44's, but i would prefer a better sound!!!!

Thanks for the help

:cheers:
 
In my opinion (and my taste) the Ortofons sound much better. They're crystal clear, and yet very warm sounding. Output is somewhat lower than the M44s (you can't beat the M44s if it comes down to output voltage), but still higher than most dj needles.
If you ask me, the Nightclubs (and even the Dj's in fact) beat all their direct concurrents (I'm thinking about the Track/Groovemasters from Stanton).
 
What about the M44-G? does it have this same 'harsh' sound you're talking about? I've been considering them mainly for the fact of the low tracking force, and from shure's site specs, they're the same in sound quality and higher output voltage.
 
Well I'd say they're in between both. Less than the 7, more than the NC. Might be a good choice too. Because skip resistance is also awesome.
 
I compared my 44-G's to my friends 44-7's, and I truthfully couldn't tell the difference in either tracking or sound. The G's supposedly don't track as well, but sound better, and vice versa for the 7's. IMO both sounded the same, and both are virtually unskippable.
 
hmm

So I've been told by an Ortofon retailer (he only sells Ortofon and Shure products), that the differences between the Ortofon pro and Shure is the record wearing.

As the Shure has a higher output voltage, it seems to wear out records far more quickly than any Ortofon, even when set with lower tracking levels.

He only recommends the Ortofon Pro NC cart. for use professionally (apparently the record wear is quite bad with NC's), for home use he recommends the Ortofon DJ or Standard Pro series, as these have remarkabley lower record wear than the NC cart.

We all know though, if you are a scratch type DJ, that your records are going to wear out alot sooner than a traditional mixer, due to going over the same area of the plate time-and-time again.

And believe me when I say, you will only notice a marked difference between the Shure and Ortofon, when you have an Audiophiles equipment. During club use, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference in quality.

I know I can tell the difference with my equipment between the 2 types - but you should choose your needle for the performance you want.

Sometimes this is a trade-off situation. Maybe someone can design an intermediate needle which sounds great and tracks brilliantly.

My suggestion : Try a Tonar Banana needle, I used to use these when I scratched (Old-skool and Jungle), and they outperformed any other needle I tried.
I think these are made by Ortofon, but sold under a diff. name.
They always tracked well and sounded Mint.!
 
Yup Tonar makes needles under the inspection of Ortofon. In fact you can even put the replacement styli of Tonar on Ortofon carts.

It's true to hear differences in sound quality you need two things
a) good equipment (you won't hear much quality rise with some basic Radio Shack speakers.)
b) good, trained hearing (for example most people of about 20 years won't even hear above 17 kHz, so it's useless trying to tell the difference between a 20Hz-18kHz needle and a 20-20 one, for most people).

As for club use, most clubs don't aim at hifi sound. They just want bass, and a decent clarity. Most clubs even work in mono. Also the resonances and reverbs will affect the sound. Factors you should even consider more on raves...
 
Ortofons wear less than a M44-G/7? Thats absurd. I have friends who have switched from Ortofons to Shure because of this and now swear by the 44s. I doubt the output has anything to do with record burn.....tracking weight does. The Ortofons I've used have tracked better than my 44Gs cause they used about twice the weight
 
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