The needle's I use are the Stanton 680's el or al. I hear the difference, I think, is that el's have a little more stability when it comes to cutting.
The Stanton 500's are a little thinner and sit in the groove of the records a little easier. However, DJ Bizzy Booster of Austria says 500's tend to jump easily and even damages the vinyl and I would have to agree with him. I've cut with 500's and I think I like my 680's a little better.

DJ Bizzy Booster wrote me about Concorde System cartridges . He says it's good because the needle doesn't lose its track. However, he says it's even worse on the vinyl than the 500's! Eeeeeeow! But what makes up for this is the so und you get from it which, like he said, isn't too important when it comes to Hip-Hop sampling.
His best system is the SHURE ME 75-6 with 75 BT 2 needles. He states that it's pretty stable, forms good sound, and doesn't damage the records. However, the only problem is, as he put, "Shure has finished the production of this system about one year ago, but the SC 356 is still available."

LJ, a DJ representin Broke Procket Producitons gave me some info on the Stanton 890's. He says there some of the best system for blendin' without scratchin'. "You pay for what you get..." is what he says, and the 890's are kinda expensive fro m what I hear.

DJ 011 from L.A. via South Chicago writes saying anything less than the Ortofon Concorde Sphericals is NOTHING! According to him, they are extremely stable, unlike the Stanton's which do break after a certain period of time. Trust his words sin ce DJ 011 has been DJ'ing house and hip-hop etc. for over 11 years.

Xavier Mandeng
"The new ortofons that they released to compete with Stantons Trackmasters are killing the rest. Record shops that used to sell 15 Trackmasters a week are seeing the Ortofons fly out of the store. Basically, they handle as well as the TMs (you have to try to make the record skip). But sound quality is better. TMs have a droning sound because they fail to capture mid-ranges as well. The Ortofons correct this flaw. I've used them a few times (once even replacing the TMs in mid set). You really can hear the difference.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the full name of the new Ortofons. I do know that they are priced less than the TMs. In NC you can get them for $110 for the pair (as opposed to something like $150).
My only question is: How well do they treat the record? "

DJ Boris writes about the Stanton Trackmaster al-1s needles saying, "Not only do they stay in the groove better than any other needle i've had, but after weeks of chris gray's moody ep (on subwoofer), the vinyl still sounds great. Mostly smooth cuts and mixing, no heavy scratching, but i do a lot of backcueing, and that puppy stayed in the groove like oil down a pipe."

DJ Sly writes in about a Cartridge/Stylus combo put out by SHURE. He says, "I bought them at a HI FI store in '92. They were clearing them out. I put them on my 1200's (previously I had really bad STANTONS on them) and my days of destruction began. In time, the stylus' wore out. I could not find any stores that carried any DC 40 stylus', so I had to resort to something else. I ordered STANTON 680's and was terribly annoyed with their performance. I kept searching for the SHURE needles and this year, I finally found a supplier. God is watching. These are amazing needles. AMAZING SOUND, BACK SPINNING (no jumping with heavy back spins),ON POINT SCRATCHING,THE WHOLE 9 YARDS!!! I'm not posting the location of this dealer, but be on the lookout. I can't make it that easy!! Your heart will lead you." -- Gee thanks. Heh, heh...

Another SHURE junkie is DJ RUTHLESS from San Jose, California. He writes, "The needle I use is the SHURE M44-7. I found out about these from JOEY J' ROCKS also from San Jose around 1989. These cartridges are light, don't skip(I love to scratch), and wear your records the least out of any stanton or ortofon cartridge and stylus I have ever tried. The ortofons I have found to wear records down like crazy and cost $$!!! They are about $125.00 for a stylus and cartridge in an average store, and the SHURE 44-7 cost $20.00 for the cartridge and $20.00 for the stylus...In my personal opinion, these needles are the sh*t and a better buy."

DJ X-SESSIVE on Stanton Groovemaster AL Needles

I just bought a matched pair of Stanton Groovemaster needlez. There pritty much tha same as tha Trackmaster ALs. They got tha same headshell design, and tha blue and black color, but tha Groovemasters are heavier. I noticed dat tha Groovemasters stay in tha groove a little better than tha Trackmasters which lets you do mo heavy scratching without the needle jumpin'. Also dat tha Groovemasters have a higher output frequency than tha Trackmasters which givez it a better sound quality. Overall if your gonna be usin tha needlez for heavy scratching, then get these new Groovemasters, but if not, then just get tha Trackmasters cuz it will cost you less than the Groovemasters.

DJ Greed representing San Fran writes, "I've been a turntablist for about 7 years and for the last year I've been selling D.J. gear. I've been playing clubs and scratching sbout 5 years and I've used everything from 500al's to ortophon djs(blue) and what I've found is the new STANTON GROOVEMASTERS AL' s are the bomb!!! They are just as heavy as the trackmasters but they have 50% louder output volume and better bass response than anything on the market. Playin' in your house you can't hear that much of a drastic difference, but playing anywhere with a system its unbelievable. It's so drastic it's hard to play with just one and balance the sound between the two different cartridges. Not that you would but still!!! Anyway i stand behind them 100%."