Any modern stylus upgrade/mods for a vintage Goldring G800?

I have an old Goldring G800 cartridge with a mediocre e-pay generic conical stylus that I throw on once in a while for mono and noisy records. I recall reading that it is actually a very good cartridge - if a modern quality stylus can be mounted to it.
Does anyone have any experience here? Any suggestions for a stylus model that would do the trick?

 

oh yes it is indeed a superb cartridge.
the stylus i bought a Jico stylus.
It was not cheap £60 plus import duty and postage
it tracks well and plays records with some previous damage with almost perfection.
a very emotional sound.
Jennifer Warnes" The power of love'
is simply awesome.
Northwest Audio ( i think thsts the name they trade under)
repair cartridges and service Garrard 401,s.
Dominic fits a special cantilever ans stylus to this cartridge.
way over the top mind, £700
but it just shows how much potential is in this little gem.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Looking at the JICO website, it only lists the standard two styli, a conical and elliptical ($33 and$56, respectively). I've sent them a message asking what they recommend. Did you get the elliptical?

 

yes , the eliptical.
you then have a G800E
tracking force 1.25 - 1.75
G800 1.5 - 3.00

 

Before I splurge on the G800E stylus - can you describe how it sounds compared to, say, a Grado Green with 8MZ stylus?

 

sorry, i have not heard the grado
To give an example
"The Power of love"
Jenifer Warnes has never sounded good on any previous and sone expensive (benz) cartridges. ie harsh, splashy treble.
through the G800E it was solid, warm but with bite in the vocals
Rigoletto (pavarotti and Milnes plus Sutherland) was simply so real.
Milnes had such body in his voice

there is some mistracking on this LP which i bought years ago (used) on most cartridges.only in one spot,
the record is so smooth thst ehen it happens its a surprise.
with the g800E with jico nothing
yet on my hi-fi news test lp it only passes band one, almost band two.
this is at a vtf of 1.5 .
no doubt at 1.75 it would pass( just)
band two.
it sounds so alive at 1.5
yet it does seemed to have glued to the groove abilities despite test disc.
I cannot advise really,
I took a gamble .
for me it was worth.
its a very subtle cartridge.
old fashioned perhaps.

 

Well, curiosity has got the better of me and I've ordered the JICO elliptical stylus. Thanks for your help!

 

i am sure you will be happy,
its a very different sound to modern cartridges no doubt.
i used about 375pf loading.
seemed to bring it to life.
to do this without a switchable pre amp.
2 Y phono adaptors with 1 male and 2 female sockets. plug into phono stage.
Add phono cable from turntable .
into the other socket on Y adaptor a loading plug.
this is a phono

plug from
maplins or on line ?
inside you solder a polypropolene capacitor say 220pf. if your phono stage has 100pf( normal) that will give 320.
of course the leads of turntable will add 100/200.
you coud make up a few different values and listen for best results
please forgive the preamble you probably know allthis.

 

Just looking through the forum and found this thread. I have a number of cartridges including an ortofon om40 however the Goldring G800E which is currently in my system is as described a belter of a budget cartridge. It sings on modern turntables, in this case a Technics SL1200Mk2 via Project Tubebox DS. Good separation and reproduction of detail. The overall balance is of a solid playback and by that I mean a degree of warmth across the range. I have been looking for a G820 but these are rare and will require a new stylus I would think after all these years. Incidentally my stylus came from "Musonic" , a UK company. This is a vintage cartridge well worth acquiring. Pf is set at 100 but with cables is probably more. In short " I love it".

 

Well I can certainly help here .
Jico supply a superb stylus for the G800E.
I think i tracked it at 1.75
One of my favourites
I know what you mean about the warmth and solidity of sound.
Jennifer Warnes ' power of love'
Being the best i have ever it.
Dominique from Northwest Audio
Rates this little gem so highly he makes an £800 stylus for it.
He recons the coils are in a class of their owm

 

I was disappointed with my Jico G800E stylus. It bends to the left. They did offer to look at it if I sent it back, but I never got around to doing that.
I expected excellent quality control from a Japanese company selling an almost $100 CAD (well, with delivery) needle. My Japanese half is appalled that they would let this happen and that they were so blase about my concerns.

It also does not sound all that much better (if at all) than the $24 conical G800 stylus I bought on the bay.

 

Thorensman - I just got a TD 160. Surprisingly, it came with one of those cheapo AT yellow cartridges on it. Still, it sounded amazing with that on it! Now I've mounted my Grado cart with 8MZ stylus on it, and while it does sound more refined, there isn't actually as much improvement as I would have expected.

Do you run a Thorens with a Goldring G800E on it? Opinions?

 

Yes i ran or still run my g800e
On my Thorens TD115.
I do have a spare headshell for the Td150 i could mount it on that,
Big smooth sound that makes you play more and more when you should be somewhere else.
My115 is currently redundant.
Very underrated
On 1950,s Opera especially Decca,s
It really is superb.
I used one of these for years on my GL75.
Neve realised how good it was.
The Jico is not cheap,
£40 or thereabouts.
By the time it reachesUK it costs another £20, because you have now become an Importer.
It will be superb on the 160 which is as good as turntables get really
Irrespective of price.

 

Still experimenting with cartridges on the Thorens. The Grado 8MZ sounds so lovely, but the darned hum is annoying. The Goldring is back on, and sounds very nice.
The Thorens also came with am Excel ES70EX-4, and I used that for a while and it sounded great - but I had a clumsy moment and broke the diamond tip off. Waiting for a replacement. But it's elliptical, not the shibata.