LP Gear CARBON FIDELITY CFN3600LE stylus

Many of you are probably interested in this stylus as an upgrade to an ATLP60 or a similar style turntable. I have always really liked the stock stylus on my ATLP60, it tracks well and does a great job emphasizing the midrange of vintage records from the 60s and 70s. However, as a vintage vinyl enthusiast, I started running into issues of inner groove distortion on a lot of the records I was buying. I was not impressed with how the stock stylus on my ATLP60 handled these issues, it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. I wanted a stylus to add a bit of clarity, clean up the soundstage and limit surface noise. After reading several reviews of this LP Gear stylus here on Amazon, I was skeptical about how this stylus would improve on an already good sounding setup. After installing the LP Gear stylus (it was a snug fit - so be careful) I was immediately blown away with the performance of this stylus. To use a tired metaphor, it felt like a veil had been lifted on my speakers (Edifier RT1208T). This stylus does a great job limiting inner groove distortion, making tracks like Stairway to Heaven, clearer (especially those symbols!). I would highly recommend this stylus. If you are looking to upgrade a budget level turntable, this will give you a more audiophile experience at a fraction of the cost of upgrading your turntable. Clarity is increased, sound stage widened, top end has extension and breath, and bass has definition. I will continue to order this once my current stylus is worn out. Plus, it tracks lighter on your records, which is always a good thing. Go ahead and do it, you won't be disappointed.

I really did not know if I wanted or needed this at all. I even placed an order for it the first time and immediately thought "omg I am insane spending 50 bucks on a stylus" and canceled my order within 10 minutes or less. But I kept reading or rather studying actually because I spent hours on the internet learning about the difference between conical vs elliptical stylus tips. They're actually even more different tips out there but these are the two most common. Long story short this stylus will actually go deeper into the grooves of your favorite groovy albums and it will give you a much better sound quality over conical stylus tipped (which is most common because of low cost) that almost always always comes equipped with a new turn table. Since the elliptical tipped stylus does get into the grooves better you'll get a much better sound and frequency response from the stylus allowing you to hear the music with higher highs and lower lows. I myself replaced my stock stylus with this one on my AT-LP60X and now it sounds just as good as a 400 dollar turn table. Another thing I have noticed is that on some of my albums that my ex damaged and used to skip will now play, I'm assuming because the stylus is going deeper into the groove and plays past where the conical used to just hop over the scratches.. so that is interesting. I definitely highly recommend this stylus! It is worth every penny for the increases in sound quality. I can't ever go to conical again unless I'm using it as a spare until a new elliptical arrives lol.

The break in period for this is suggested at 30ish hours, so that’s when I made my judgement. I wouldn’t call myself an audiophile but I’m trying to learn some of the terms. At first I did an out of the box comparison, I don’t really think I heard a difference between the new one and my stock white stylus. After the break in though, you can definitely tell there is a slight enhancement in the soundstage and the lows. I also noticed on a couple of my albums where the highs are high on guitar solos, it sounded like my stock stylus wasn’t able to reach the highs without distorting, but there is an improvement with this upgraded stylus. I felt it was worth the money.

I recently bought an nos Audio Technia AT-LP2D turntable for my office. It sounded pretty good for the $35.00 that I gave for it. I was hesitant to upgrade the needle as it was close to the price of the turntable but I went ahead and bit the bullet. I am glad that I did because my cheap turntable now sounds just as good as my Dual turntable in the living room. I am just now listening to the first album with it but it made a big improvement. They say that they need to break in so it should just get better. I would highly recommend this for anyone looking to upgrade their stock conical stylus. Update - I dropped it down to 4 stars because, while it does sound better than the stock stylus, it skips a lot more. I thought that it seemed to be skipping quite a bit so I put on my best sounding album this morning and it skipped on the first song. The album is near mint and has never skipped. I put the old stylus back on and no skips. It might just be a bad match for my turntable but I guess I will be going back to the original needle and give up a little sound quality. Maybe you will have better luck.

I was curious if this would sound better than the stock stylus on my lp60x,so I got it to try out. The sound is a little more dynamic so I was not disappointed. However I am testing it mainly on my wifes collection of beater records. These 40-50 year old albums were auto dropped and finger cued back in the day. There were only about 5 of them that tracked a little worse out of 80 albums. Still acceptable to me. However I ran across just one off my new albums that had two little mini skips. Stock cartridge played it fine. Installing this is fine..you tube has some good installation videos on this. Instructions that come with this are a joke. After swapping back and forth once it was super easy. If it does not snap into place easily do not force it. It took me me two attempts the first time..then it was easy. I Gave it five stars for the sound...right now I have about 20 hours on this and it does sound better. Break in time is supposed to be 30 hours. This cartridge sounded really good on Gabby Barretts Goldmine...one of my new ones. Just got back into vinyl 6 months ago after 40 years. Its not for everybody. I might wear this cartridge out and then upgrade to a fluance rt85 or better. It was not a waste of money which I thought in the first place. Have a little patience and break it in. I just about sent it back because of the tracking. Have a nice day!

The AT3600 is actually a very nice cart for the low price. This stylus upgrades it so you can hear crisp clean extended highs that are lost to a conical stylus. It may sound a bit bright at first but give a little "break-in" time and it will have the same natural balance as the stock 3600. It will not give you the kind of very subtle details that a much more expensive cart can deliver, but this makes it much more tolerant of lower quality and noisy recordings. I have this mounted on a Technics SL1200 Mk2 table and this is my go-to setup for many old records! If you have not tried it, you should.

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING

This stylus is better than the Audio-technica AT3600 it replaced, but the audio technica AT91N fits the LP60, is cheaper, and has a stronger soundstage. I'd recommend the AT91N for a better overall value.