The 9 Best DJ Cartridges

Editor's Notes

October 23, 2026, by Ezvid Wiki Admin:

The Ortofon Concorde MKII Mix now leads this list. The Shure M44-7, the scratch standard for decades, is no longer made, and Shure has left the cartridge business, so the Shure Whitelabel goes too. The Stanton 500.V3 and Numark CS-1 also came off because of availability concerns, and the AT95E left because it's a hi-fi cartridge that skips when cued.

The Ortofon Concorde MKII Scratch, Ortofon OM Q.Bert, Ortofon OM Pro S and Audio-Technica AT-XP5 stay. New are the rest of Ortofon's color-coded Concorde MKII family, the Audio-Technica AT-XP3 for tight budgets and the JICO Omnia J44A 7 for anyone chasing the old Shure sound.

Nobody runs lab tests on DJ cartridges, so this ranking leans on spec sheets and DJ experience: we lined up each cartridge's output, stylus shape and tracking force from Ortofon's product pages and Turntable Lab's Audio-Technica sheets, then weighed them against what The Vinyl Factory and DJs on forums say about cueing, scratching and record wear. Stock is thin on a few picks, the JICO pair above all.

July 17, 2020:

Just like a musician needs a good instrument, a DJ needs high-quality equipment. This includes not just the turntable, headphones, and mixer, but needles too. Any DJ worth their salt will tell you that a good cartridge and stylus make a serious difference in how your vinyl sounds. They also boast different designs that make them better suited for certain applications. For example, the Shure M44-7 and Ortofon OM Q.Bert are built with a focus on scratching, while the Numark CS-1 is specifically engineered with a high output and wide frequency response range for electronic music.

As we mentioned in the editor's note during our last update, Shure is no longer producing their DJ cartridges and, as predicted, they are becoming harder to find. While we expected the Shure M44-7 to become scarce first, as it is a favorite among experienced turntablists and has been for a long time, it seems the Shure SC35C is actually disappearing from the market quicker, most likely due to the lower price tag. It is because of this that we decided it is finally time to remove the SC35C from our list. We did still retain it as a special honor, though we will be the first to admit, you may have trouble finding one for sale anywhere. For now, the Shure M44-7 still retains its place, and as before, we recommend that you scoop a few up quickly if you want them, since we fully expect them to be almost impossible to find by the next time we update this list.

With Shure mostly out of the market, the next best DJ cartridges are going to be from Ortofon and we wanted to include one of their models to suit each type of need. With that in mind, we have the Ortofon Concorde MK2 as our all-purpose club choice. It works well for most music genres, won't cause excessive record wear from backcueing or scratching, and offers accurate sound reproduction. For the turntable wizards who have decided it is time to finally say goodbye to the M44-7, there are few better replacements than the Ortofon OM Q.Bert.

Recently Audio-Technica has been gaining ground in the DJ cartridge market and is one of the few companies still releasing new models. One of the new additions to their lineup is the AT-VM95E, which is a successor to the Audio-Technica AT95E. That being said, newer isn't always better and we feel most beginner DJs and hobbyists will prefer the overall performance-to-price of the AT95E, so we haven't yet replaced it on our list. However, that will change once the AT95E becomes hard to find. Another new addition from them is the Audio-Technica AT-XP5, which we do think worthy of inclusion. It is their middle-tier model in the line, between the XP3 andXP7, and we think represents the best value of the three.

June 05, 2019:

Anybody who has spent some time behind a turntable knows that not all needles perform the same. Some are better for scratching, while others get deeper into the groove to pick up more nuances of the music. On this list you'll find both varieties to ensure there is something for everyone. Shure has dominated the DJ cartridge market for decades, but recently they announced they will no longer be manufacturing them, which is a serious blow to turntablists who have been using them religiously for years. If you fall into this category of people, or even if you have never used one before, we recommend you pick up a few now because soon you may no longer have the chance. When it comes to scratching, you can do no better than the Shure M44-7. The Shure SC35C is the essentially the budget version of the M44-7, but doesn't have the same level of skip resistance and will produce slightly more record wear. The Shure Whitelabel is better for mixing and recording analog tracks to digital files.

With Shure leaving the market, the next best option are generally Ortofon models, and in fact many experienced DJs actually prefer Ortofon over Shure. Currently the best all-around cartridge from this brand is the Ortofon MKII DJ. It is just as suitable for scratching as mixing and has a high output voltage to pull maximum sound from your vinyls. True turntable warriors that want the best scratching cartridge from this brand should look to the Ortofon Q.Bert, though the Ortofon OM Pro S runs a close second.

Of the last few models on our list the Numark CS-1 has been specially designed for EDM music, making it a good choice for dubstep DJs, and the Stanton 500.V3 and Audio-Technica AT95E are decent budget options best suited to beginners and casual hobbyists.