The magnetic cartridges you see below all come complete with needle. Often folks get confused as to which part is the cartridge vs. the needle. The cartridge is the boxlike receptacle at the end of the tonearm into which the needle assembly plugs or snaps. The needle/stylus assembly is generally the colored plastic seen in the thumbnails below.
Now, you may have run across a salesman who told you "oh!, you have to replace the whole cartrige....fwend" (as he blinks to hide the $ signs rolling in his eyes!) Well now enjoy what our technician will tell you if you call...
"The cartridge only needs to be replaced if:
A) It's missing.
B) It's clearly physically damaged.
C) You know you have a cheap cartridge & to need to upgrade, bad!
D) Researching your cartridge # yields an obsolete needle type.
E) You're exhausted, and you just wanna play some dang music now!
They almost never just go bad by themselves. Magnetic cartridges are essentially just magnets and wiring. So, generally only needles wear out, due to contact with the record. Barring above circumstances, 90% of the time you will be money ahead by just replacing the needle/stylus assembly."
If it now sounds like you may just need a stylus (needle) we've made it easy in our needle section.
If you were sent directly to this page as an answer to an email question, then it's here that you must start to determine what type of cartridge you will need. Remember it's often only necessary to replace the needle, the cartridge rarely fails. But if you want to do a major upgrade or downgrade from your current setup, or if your whole cartridge is missing, you'll need a cartridge. For most modern turntables, say from the 1970's to present either a P-mount or 1/2 Inch mount cartridge is used. The brand does not have to match your turntable, it only has to have the correct mounting system. Simply click on the picture below that more closely resembles what you see at the end of your tonearm.
Some may want to align a
magnetic cartridge perfectly. This can be done with a protractor but
this is not for the faint of heart. It requires a learning curve.
Here is the best page we have found, full of info and several free
printable cartridge protractors.
