Any experience with Digitrac (Ortofon made) cartridge/stylus?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by fxsuperglide, Jan 15, 2007.

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  1. fxsuperglide

    fxsuperglide Active Member Thread Starter

    I recently decided to purchase a small quantity of budget cartridges from a seller on ebay. Doing some research, I found the Digitrac he was selling to be made by Ortofon (perhaps as a budget item or private label version?) and found the model 200 NE for just $20. The 200 NE has a Nude Elliptical stylus and is comparable to the Ortofon OMP-20 (not sure spec-wise how similar it is), except the Digitrac lacks the nicer gold plated terminals. Upon purchasing an initial batch of 3, I found two of them to be defective. I decided to try 3 more, to find two more defective yet. I guess anyone can make mistakes. Perhaps this inventory was meant to be destroyed? but made it to a liquidator for sale on ebay? Even with the defective cartridge, the price is still excellent if only for the stylus alone - it makes a great cheap replacement for their OM series Ortofon cartridge - just trim off the locating tab on top of the cartridge body and it fits perfectly (NOTE: the Digitrac's slightly taller stylus body won't fit on the OMP cartridge, perhaps unless major modifications are made). The Digitrac NE stylus is likely comparable (or equal) to the Ortofon Stylus 20, which retails for close to $100. Anyone here have any experience with these Digitrac cartridges?
     
  2. fxsuperglide

    fxsuperglide Active Member Thread Starter

    Oh, I forgot to mention what I do know about the Digitrac cartridge: From what I heard, they were made for a short time during the 1980s and discontinued shortly afterwards. As a consequence, replacement styli were difficult to obtain. Thankfully, their design allowed them to be fitted with Ortofon OM replacement Styli (from any in the series). Of course there's the quantities of cartridges that appear once or twice a month on ebay by a particular seller (they're selling 190 S, 190 SBX, and of course, the ill fated 200 NE versions). Perhaps one reason they were short-lived was a result of the defective batch and that the ones now appearing for sale might be from one of those batches that was supposed to be destroyed? One can only guess. Digitrac did offer a 280 model cartridge and supposedly an even better model with a SE "Super Elliptical" stylus, but again, they're nearly impossible to find today. Best bet - go with an inexpensive Ortofon OM, OMB, or Super OM series cartridge and simply purchase several of the Digitrac 200 NE cartridges for their stylus only. I purchased several for those friends who want a better quality "cheapie" setup, but are unwilling to spend huge amounts. My thoughts.
     
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