Phonola Cartridge replacement

[hermitcrab]

this is a flip over cartridge , not sure which one it is ... as you gotta remove the tone arm to get access to it... one side is almost dead barely and sound , what would you suggest as a good replacement for this?
Thanks...

[electra225]

I'll bet that's a crystal cartridge. I have a little GE stereo with an Astatic 208-1 cartridge. Gary had a replacement for it and you can also get them online. I linked a source in Parts and Service Suppliers, they are in Oklahoma. A member stated they had used that vendor with good results.

viewtopic.php?t=1696

[hermitcrab]

Do they still have these?... are they any good after all these years?...or are they newly made?

[electra225]

I'm assuming they are NOS. Gary stands behind what he sells, and my understanding is the lady in Oklahoma I linked does as well. The only alternative is to use a ceramic cartridge after you figure out a way to include a pre-amp of some kind. Since you have a VM changer there, you can change the tone arm to work better with a ceramic cartridge. I read an article in a magazine I have that said if you use a 50EH5 as an output tube, a ceramic cartridge may drive it enough to provide adequate volume with no pre-amp as a sub for a crystal cartridge. Your definition of "adequate" may differ from the author of that article. I decided that my little GE was not going to be a "front line" stereo, something I was not going to use much, but I wanted it to work. Gary cautioned me that crystal cartridges didn't track as well as a ceramic, so not to play my best records with a crystal cartridge. I would play 45's or 78's on it mostly, so no worries there. Plus, I didn't want to have to modify the PCB chassis to accommodate a pre-amp stage.