Audio-Technica VM670SP Dual Moving Magnet Stereo Turntable Cartridge for 78 RPM Records - White Edition Review

I was an idiot and I had a 78 gauge needle plugged into a standard stereo pickup. It sounded terrible! With this cassette, my 78s now sound better than CD releases of the same music! FYI, with downforce and anti-skate set to 5, I experienced a lot of distortion on louder passages. I lowered the downforce to 4.5 (recommendation for the lower bogie) and the anti-skate to 4.25. The distortion is completely gone! Work with AT-LP120.

I have a lot of old 78rpm records (I'm old too!) and quite a few early 20th century shellac records. My current player offered this speed, but didn't come with a pen or module that could play it properly. After some research, a cheaper solution would be to just buy a 78 gauge stylus and put it in my current stereo cartridge. The problem is that to hear them with more fidelity and less background noise, the cartridge like the VM670SP needs to be connected in mono. This pickup isn't cheap, but I…

I use an old Garrard Type A changer to play '78 records - a must if you don't want to hop every 3 minutes. (By the way, this is one of the few couplers that is safe for pre-war 78s.) It requires more downforce than any other modern 78-inch mono cartridge allows. The VM670SP weighs between 4.5g and 5.5g, while other pickups have a 2.5g ceiling. The increased power eliminates jumps, handles even poor recordings and, most importantly, gets the sound from the bottom of the grooves. The pre-war 78s…

I like this pickup, it has a great sound. You get less noise because it's monophonic like 78's. Playing 78s with a stereo cartridge produces a lot more noise. I wish they would also make 2.5 and 3.5 mil styli for different eras of the '78 and to get more music out of very worn records.