Sumiko Oyster Moving Magnet HiFi Pick Up Cartridge with Precision Diamond Stylus

I am very surprised it sound good

Great product. Delivered before expected date and great value

No joke, this is a fantastic stylus. Simply a divine, easy listening experience. Smooth, dark, and clear. Now I have been on the upgrade stylus route and after spending hundreds on various cartridges can tell you straight it's all a load of baloney. I have an OM 30 that costs a few hundred and for a while, I convinced myself I was listening to HIFI heaven until that is I purchased a more humble OM 10 and I found that whilst the cartridge lacked some aspects of the OM 30 it excelled in others. I owned the Goldring Elan which sounded lovely until I upgraded it to the Elecktra and again I felt the difference but it lacked some subtleties of the Elan. What you gain with one upgrade you will lose in another aspect and unless you have a system that costs thousands I am not convinced that stylus upgrades are worth the money. The Ortofon OM series all sound different with each upgrade gaining and losing some aspect or the other. The Sumiko Oyster Rocks however on its own, and for a while was the only budget cartridge in the Sumiko range however Sumiko (like Ortofon and Audio Technica) has become wise to the fact that those new to vinyl (and us oldies) are into upgrades. Years ago we tended to buy a stylus and that was it. I remember well as a 12-year-old boy taking my stylus into the HIFI store and having it inspected by a microscope (the guy even put on a white coat when using the microscope and I jest you not), it was only a generic stylus on a cheap Phillips Player but sure enough, it had to be replaced. I was given no other choice than a like-for-like replacement. Try that now and you will be walking in with an 80-pound cartridge and walking out with one for 300. Why spend more when you had one already... Now the various vinyl forums are the worse places one can go for advice, the only way to judge a cartridge is to listen to it. The vinyl forums do more damage than anyone else because if one person writes a poor review about a product it becomes a snowball effect and in the end, even those who haven't heard of a particular cartridge have heard of its reputation (without hearing it) and will advise the poor soul who is overjoyed at purchasing his or her first record player to avoid that lovely cartridge they have just purchased. It ends in misery. The folks on the forums set themselves up as some sort of HIFI authority, the cartridge manufacturers fuel the fire by pushing new cartridges by the score and selling bunches of cartridges in the process. The reason I am including this information in the review is to place some context on modern cartridge purchasing and as someone who has owned a lot of record players and cartridges and spent thousands in the process I can tell you straight that the upgrade route is a con, this Sumiko is as good as any and will suffice to play well-defined music with good bass and mids; why wouldn't it, it is after all made for that purpose! Now lastly, I did once hear some excellent advice from a forum however that has stayed with me and I would like to pass it on. Turntable manufacturers spend hours making sure that their turntables sound more than OK and that includes the cartridge, they often design the player with a tonearm that is made with a particular cartridge in mind; `think of the famous Dual CS5000 and its Ortofon OM series that came as standard, little improved on that because the whole arm was made with that turntable in mind. They consider the weight, output, and design of the cartridge and put it all together to give their best shot. Then we buy a player and go over to a forum and suddenly everyone is telling us that the turntable is OK but the cartridge, platter, arm, mat, lid, wiring, etc is no good and needs an upgrade so we start to unpick the work done by the manufacturer. In the end, we attempt to become the manufacturer and in doing so spend much more than intended. The Sumiko Oyster is a good serviceable cartridge, it works well and sounds great. It does not break the bank to purchase and it was definitely on your turntable for a reason. I have no complaints with the manufacturer, Teac in my Case (Sumiko) and Dual (OM20) but I have wasted a lot of money looking for something better and I can tell you straight nothing sounds better than this cartridge that is placed on the turntable it came with. How we hear music is defined by how we feel on a particular day and that changes as often as we play a record. If you choose to buy this Sumiko do so in faith, a lovely cheaper cartridge that is as good as any. Unless of course, you wish to spend that money you saved for a new car on a record player. I know what I would do :) Sumiko Oyster a lovely solution to hearing your records. End of story.