A few days ago, a gentleman called into our store to ask about suitable upgrade cartridges for his son’s Rega Planar 2 turntable. A couple of years old now, this particular vintage of P2 has a fire-and-forget setup, in that the arm has a nominally fixed tracking weight (downforce) and automatic bias, designed for a specific cartridge – Rega’s own Carbon MM. For those of you interested, you will be heartened to learn that the latest Planar 2 now has downforce adjustment and remains cleverly auto-biasing. But what are we to do with this particular turntable?

A Rega P2 turntable with closeup of Rega Carbon MM cartridge

With no apparent way to know how much tracking force is being applied, fitting a different model cartridge can be somewhat….problematic.

Also, if the new cartridge is lighter than the Carbon MM, it is impossible to counteract the reduction in mass, as for simplicity of setup, the counterweight is designed to sit right at the forward end of its travel for the Carbon MM.

A heavier cartridge can be accommodated by moving counterweight back of course, it simply requires the use of a gauge to accurately set the downforce. Happily, here at Audio T Swansea we come equipped with the Project Measure It II Stylus Balance gauge to do just that…

A Rega P2 turntable pictured with cartridge fitting tools. To whit, pliers, screwdrive and tracking force gauge.r — Project Measure It II Stylus Balance gauge ready to get to work

Which cartridge to recommend?

Upon the horns of a dilemma, our gentleman didn’t wish to be overgenerous, (the turntable will be operated by an enthusiastic youth after all), yet he didn’t wish to appear parsimonious towards his son. I suggested the Audio Technica AT-VM95E at £50*.

It has been noted that the Rega Carbon MM and Audio Technica’s moving magnet cartridges have a certain resemblance, even if the latter are a touch larger and conveniently slightly heavier than the Rega Carbon MM. I successfully convinced our customer of the ‘95’s virtues and fitted it to the deck….

A Rega tonearm in closeup awaiting its new cartridge, the Audio Technica VM95E — The rega carbon removed from the tonearm and ready for the new at-vm95e cartridge

A turntable cartridge resting upon a stylus tracking force gauge measuring exactly 2 grammes of downforce. — weight precision with the Project Measure It II

A tonearm and cartridge resting on a stylus alignment protractor — Weight isn’t everything. ALIGNMENT is key.

I carried the newly upgraded turntable out on to the shop floor. “Shall we have a listen? The 1st Floor demo suite is free…”, I said.

“Oh – can we?”, the customer beamed.

“Of course – follow me!” - We trotted upstairs and I plugged the Rega Planar 2 into our Rega Elex-R amplifier and Monitor Audio Silver 100 speakers..

“What sort of music do you like?”, I asked.

“Anything really – I quite like Queen if that’s any help.”

“I’ve got a new ‘Night at the Opera’ pressing…”

“Go for it.”

I settled on ‘Love of my Life’ (I hadn’t listened to it since we went to see ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) and frankly, I was surprised at how good it sounded. It’s not the best-engineered recording ever made, but the brave little AT-VM95E dug into the groove and gave us a solid and realistic piano and Freddie’s vocals full with emotion, soared clear above the speakers. The soundstage had width, weight and scale. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable experience which was well worth the entrance fee.

A black Rega Elex-R amplifier sits upon an oak table next to a playing rega P2 turntable. In the background, a cheap Ikea floor lamp illuminates the scene and refracts light through the turntable's glass platter in a pleasing fashion.

“Oh man, I could sit in front of that all day! Thanks for doing that for me, that’s brilliant, really lovely.”

“Not at all sir, entirely my pleasure. And of course, once the young gentleman has worn out the stylus, he can upgrade from the current standard Elliptical stylus to the Elliptical Nude at £100, or the Microlinear at £135 or the £160 Shibata, all without having to change the cartridge body.”*

“Ha! That’ll focus his mind on getting a part-time job.”

And there you have it! Proof that you don’t always have to match products and components from the same manufacturer. If you have any questions about cartridge replacement, upgrades or any other Hi-Fi or Home Cinema query, be sure to Contact Us.

Thanks for reading.

Nic and Ade - Audio T Swansea

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