Tag Archives: record needle

Madness! The Most Expensive Replacement Record Cartridge Ever?

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Koetsu Coralstone Platinum record cartridge

by Joe Wallace

How much would you pay for a replacement record needle? How about a replacement record cartridge made from coralstone? No, you probably won’t be doing any scratchin’ with the Koetsu Coralstone Platinum cartridge, which retails for a brain-shreddingly high price tag of…wait for it…$15,000. That’s right, fifteen THOUSAND DOLLARS. Did I mention this is mono only?

Imagine if you will, having a checkbook fat enough to plunk down 15K for one of these, taking it home and dropping the needle down on..anything. You’d never get any records played because you could never get past the “Which album is worthy of the first needle drop from my new fifteen thousand dollar replacement cartridge?” question.

Well, maybe Kind of Blue by Miles or maybe a Morricone classic. But really—how could you even get started?

Now imagine for a moment that the Koetsu Coralstone Platinum actually ISN’T the most expensive replacement record cartridge on the planet?

Submitted for your approval is an even MORE EXPENSIVE Koetsu replacement cartridge for all your high-falutin’ designer vinyl needs. This one is so exclusive that only TWO of them are made PER YEAR according to the retail hype. Crack open a $500 a-bottle Laphroaig 25 year old Cask Strength Islay Single Malt Whisky and listen to your Sesame Street Live! soundtrack album on THIS little bastard:

Koetsu Blue Lace Platinum Magnet Replacement Record Player CartridgeThe Koetsu Blue Lace Platinum Magnet cartridge is a low-output cartridge retailing for $20 thousand, and is made with “an agate Onyx of blue, grey and white layers of fused quartz.” Me personally, I’m hoping to score one of these to play some old Eminem 12-inch singles on and maybe the soundtrack to Ordinary People. Then I’m going to tear it up at the club with some scratching action–using a Rick Springfield record that the lightshow guy snorted some coke off of five minutes ago.

Shure Whitelabel Integrated Phono Cartridge

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Shure Whitelabel D2 Phono Cartridge record needleA hundred dollar record needle? Well, the DJ in me wants to correct that line to read phono cartridge, but yes, this Shure Whitelabel integrated phono cartridge DOES sell for $100+. Since it’s aimed at party DJs and club DJs, it’s built for heavy-duty use rather than casual record spins–there’s something to be said for a record needle built to withstand an evening of abuse in the club.

And since a DJ can write off the expense of high-end record needles as a legitimate business expense, why not?

Replacement needles are essential for any vinyl junkie, but even more so for the people who spin for a living. What some like about this one, aside from the gold plated connectors or the forward mass design made for better center-of-gravity conditions for playing and scratching, is the color scheme. It’s kinda hard to see a black phono cartridge against the black vinyl in the dim light of a club.

Some record lovers thing a record needle is a record needle. Others are quite picky. We fall somewhere in the middle. It’s enough to be able to spin the LPs at home with decent sound quality from a typical, well-designed phono cartridge…but anybody who wants to play for hours on end three or four nights a week? A rugged design plus the Shure Whitelabel cartridge’s adjustable overhang (50mm – 54mm to help maintain the forward and backward adjustment of a standard-mount headshell, letting you tweak the adjustment whether you’ve got an S-arm or a straight-arm turntable) means you should probably take a look at a couple of these.