It’s time to move on from my Kandid. It’s Not listenable.. the harshness is brutal. I’ve stopped spinning for fear of damaging my collection. Any recommendations Under $900USD? This will be temporary as my money is kind of funny right now. Thanks everyone.

It's hard to get passed the Urika so a Koil I guess.

Otherwise, Slipsik 8 with Adikt or VM95 work really well. It's surprising what you can get out of a £30 VM95E stylus when using Slipsik 8 and a good system like yours.

Charlie1 wrote: ↑2023-03-30 15:24 It's hard to get passed the Urika so a Koil I guess.

Koil is > $1k... maybe 'Koil-like' from the AT OC9X series?

Find someone to rebuild it.

John wrote: ↑2023-03-30 20:01 Find someone to rebuild it.

That's certainly doable for that kind of money. You could get it done with the same boron cantilever and stylus (by Ogura), that Linn/Lyra uses. However, if you need it right away, maybe better a Koil or the AT, that it's based on. Otherwise, a Dynavector 10X5 Mk II Neo also fits your budget.

Any thoughts about buying a 2nd hand Klyde or Dynavector Karat 17D (I had those waaay back with my akito, lingo and linto). I just don’t know how they are 2nd hand, how long they last. I replaced those during an upgrade frenzy.

bonzo wrote: ↑2023-03-30 14:03 It’s time to move on from my Kandid. It’s Not listenable.. the harshness is brutal. I’ve stopped spinning for fear of damaging my collection. Any recommendations Under $900USD? This will be temporary as my money is kind of funny right now. Thanks everyone.

How old is your Kandid and roughly how many hours?
Mine is 2014 vintage, suspension is still fine and plays well with say 1,200 hours. Always used a wet vac RCM, Lyra SPT liquid and dry vibration cleaner and Dust Buster as maintenance.



Re the DV 17 Karat. It’s a fine cartridge but, when I had one, I found it difficult to keep clean due to virtually non existing cantilever.

Linn Adikt?

longgone wrote: ↑2023-04-03 23:06Linn Adikt?

Doesn't work with a Urika...

bonzo wrote: ↑2023-03-31 14:20 Any thoughts about buying a 2nd hand Klyde or Dynavector Karat 17D (I had those waaay back with my akito, lingo and linto). I just don’t know how they are 2nd hand, how long they last. I replaced those during an upgrade frenzy.

I would never buy a used cartridge - too many people out there with 10 year old crapped-out carts with "less than 20 hours usage, honest"! Yeah, right!