Hi, I went and looked around at cartridge sources for your current table, and the choices are limited, for sure.

Have you been to the forums at Beoworld? They may have more sources than I could find.

I read about the 1203 and the specs look good, and the suspension seems well thought out.

I bet with some playing around you could dial in the plinth/suspension/motor set-up and have better sound than the newer stuff in your price range.

I have a buddy who's been in the Hi-Fi biz for a long time who's a real advocate of a few of the B&O models - but I forget which ones!

Before buying anything, browse Beoworld at http://www.beoworld.co.uk/

Especially the forums there!

See what you can gather about tweaks!

Best wishes.

Hi Meg and Welcome,

I'm afraid you're facing a dead-end road. Even before B&O stopped marketing replacement cartridges for their turntables, the prices for replacements were high for what you got. Back in the dark ages, when the son of a friend worked for B&O, I fell for one of the B&O linear tracking turntables and learned the hard way that all that glitters isn't gold. It was wonderfully easy to use, but sonically inferior to the Dual turntable I had mounted with a Shure Type III. The cartridge was about $200 then, as I recall. In the end, I wound up giving the turntable away. My advice to you, unfortunately, is to take a deep breath, buy the Music Hall MMF-5 with its included cartridge and enjoy both the superior sound that combination will provide as well as the knowlege that you are no longer at a dead-end. Take heart that you're not alone in having learned an expensive lesson about B&O.

Cheers,

Thanks heaps for the advice - very useful and pretty much what I had imagined to be the best course of action...any excuse to get new gear huh! So now one more question - I used to have a Rega P3 which I sold in the early 90s for $300NZD - prob about $150US or less at the time!! and I keep coming back to that one in my thinking...I notice that Rega also do the Brio amp which could be a good combo with a spanking new P3 (budget has gone out the window at this point!). The reason why I have had to change tack somewhat in my choice of gear is because I am in Australia and have found it impossible to get anyone who will bring my other choices into the country. Listeners in the UK and US are SO fortunate!!! So...the question is, of the following component options available to me, which set-up do you guys reckon I should go for?:

Turntables:
Rega P3
NAD 533

Amps:
Rega Brio
Denon PMA-1500AE

Thanks in advance.