Turntable cartridges explained

When a cartridge (or pickup) is sold, it always comes with a needle installed. While sometimes your entire cartridge must be replaced due to the rarity of the replacement needle, this is actually becoming less necessary. The internet and our more than 150,000 online cross references updated daily is making it easier than ever to find your stylus.

The term turntable cartridges generally refer to pickup assemblies found at the front end of the tonarm on turntables from the 1970's to present. A turntable is generally a stand-alone unit, whereas a record player usually refers to a phonograph that is built in or integrated into a stereo system so that it cannot be separated. Turntable cartridges are almost always magnetic type and almost never fail as they are basically a magnet and a coil of copper wire. The terms phonograph or record player cartridges often refer to systems built before the 1970's and so usually contain a ceramic cartridge.

One of the wonderful things about record players, turntables, decks and phonographs, which are all basically the same thing, a device that plays records (LP's) is that they are very reliable. Well the old ones are, anyway. The new ones, are often not so well built.

So what will fail on the older ones? Well the rubber belt(s), the needle, the idler drive wheel, if equipped, and the grease. Yes, grease that has dried over time will often cause the platter to have excess drag as it rides around the center spindle. Simply remove the platter, remove the grease or oil at the center spindle and inside the hole of the platter. Once clean, add a small amount of grease or oil commonly found around the house and reassemble.

Phonograph parts such as the drive motor, gears, levers, actuators, switches can also fail, but this is far far less common. Always suspect the belt, idler wheel, needle or grease first, then go onto other items.

A turntable preamp or pre-amp is a small electronic circuit that will amplify the very small electrical signal coming out of a cartridge. It brings the cartridge signal up to an electrical level that is equal to the audio output of a CD player, tape deck or DVD player. The symptom that you will experience if you do not have a preamp is that the sound from your player will be about 10% of your other components.

Some modern turntables have a built-in pre-amp. This means you can plug it into any audio input except one that is labeled phono! These turntables are usually not well built, overall. If you have an older player and a receiver or amp that has a phono input then you must use that input. If you have an older player and a modern receiver/amp with no input labeled 'phono' or if you are taking your player output directly into a computer sound card, that's when you must get a separate turntable preamp.