Cartridge for Heybrook TT2?

[MrFixit]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a 222/250 which I’m loving. I also have an ancient Heybrook TT2 with an ATF5 moving coil cartridge which hasn’t been played in years, but the 222 only has a moving magnet phono stage so I can’t use it to play the ~100 LPs I’ve kept from the 80s.

So I’m looking for suggestions for a MM cartridge. I realise there are other ways to go, but as the TT2/Rega RB300/ATF5 are ~40 years old, replacing the cartridge and getting the TT2 serviced would allow me to play my LPs occasionally and make use of my 222.

[Skeptikal]

Any of theAudio Technica ATvm95 series will get you going.
Remember to change your phono settings from MC to MM .

[Christopher_M]

@MrFixit

[Heybrook] TT2/Rega RB300/ATF5 are ~40 years old

Goldring 1042 is MM and broadly that vintage, and widely acknowledged as more than decent.

C.

[MrFixit]

Thanks for the suggestion . I think my dealer stocks AT cartridges, so I could ask him to fit one when he services my TT2.

[Skeptikal]

I had a TT2 many years ago and was a great deck I traded it in for my LP12.

[MrFixit]

I’m hoping NOT to end up trading it in for an LP12

[jlewis]

…the seed has been sewn!

[james_n]

My gateway too. Great TT.

[Skeptikal]

I seem to remember it being much more accepting of footfall than the LP12 unless it was rose tinted glasses to go with the tinted lid.

[TheKevster]

My first serious TT too (after a Dual CS505) – had it with a Syrinx LE1 arm and A&R P77 cart, into a NAD 3020 and Heybrook HB1s.

Which, like @Skeptikal, I traded in for an LP12…

[catswhiskers]

Agree with the AT route. Reasonable price upgrade of those can be a RigB body mod, finding them is the puzzle, possibly facebook?
Another option might be the recently introduced Ortofon body mods, specifically designed for Rega arms.

[Paul52135]

Doesn’t the TT2 have a cast aluminium subchassis? Maybe that’s why they sound so good.

[MrFixit]

It does, I seem to recall. It’s a poor man’s LP12!

[anon70766008]

I believe that Peter Swain of Cymbiosis was about to get in an Audio Technica VM760SLC moving magnet cartridge for testing.

(I was in conversation with Peter about this cartridge when I bought my NAIT50, with its MM-only input, before I found the Japanese-built Ortofon ST-7 step up transformer.)

An alternative might be one of those bright red Dynavector high output MC cartridges. The model number is DV-10X5, and it has an output of 2.8mV (which means nothing to me). I am a big fan of Dynavector cartridges, but I have no experience of this model.

[Skeptikal]

My old TT2 sub chassis.