The guys who are selling cartridge clips for $ 15 dollars isn’t going to like this post. But I don’t feel like paying $ 15 dollars for something that’s worth $ 0.05 cents either.
A few weeks ago, I decided to rewire the Supreme Analog Tangenta Tonearm (currently under review) with my own tonearm wires. I looked all over and the cartridge clips don’t come cheap. Then I found this post on Vinyl Engine about DIY Cartridge clips, so I decided to give it a try.
I found Sub D computer serial cable connectors on EBAY for $ 7.99 so I ordered 4 of them.
eBay links have a habit of going dead in a few weeks, but if you do a search on Sub-D female serial connectors you will find them easily. If you look hard enough you can even find connectors with silver pins.
They arrived a few days later. I pried out the rivets on the side to expose the pins. I applied solder heat on the pins and they fell out on their own.
Long story short, they worked perfectly! So there you go, $ 7.99 for 100 cartridge clips!
I know I know, don’t ask me why we are willing to pay for a $17,000 dollar cartridge, but not a $15 dollar set of pins. All I can say is Warren Buffet will like this post.
Richard H. Mak
Analog Editor, Mono & Stereo