[MrFixr55]

Hi Mars,

Yes, you could put a stereo magnetic cartridge in that turntable, but I don't know how successful it would be. 

Here are the variables:

• Finding a cartridge with 1/2" mounting holes- Easy.
  
• Having to put the 2 sets of terminals on the cartridge in parallel- Relatively easy, requires the slip-on connectors, cannot solder directly to the pins of the cartridge.
  
• Cartridge height (how far it hangs below the arm)- Moderate difficulty, if cartridge hangs too low, needle will drag across record or turntable when changer picks up arm.  there may be a few choices on the V-M website.
  
• Tracking- Moderate difficulty.  Need to find a magnetic cartridge that tracks between 5 and 10 grams.  this turntable will not track at a low weight such as 1-3 gm.
  
• Confirming that the Phono Amp has 10mV input sensitivity- Difficult, see below.
  

Unless one of the Phorum Old timers (oh well, we all are kinda on the old side) was able to find specs for the magnetic cartridge that was part of the D10 turntable, the sensitivity of the "phono amp" that is part of the radio is a guestimate.  None of the documents for the radio or turntable give sensitivity for either the Phono amp or the regular input from the radio.  I estimate that the crystal cartridges of the time used on the D10 (not the D10A), and in the 47-1227 (see previous diagrams in this thread), put out between 0.5V and 1V.  My rough guess is that the Phono preamp on this set has a sensitivity of about 0.1V OR 100 mV.  The best way of determining if a magnetic cartridge is appropriate is to actually hook up a turntable with a magnetic cartridge to the "phono" input to the radio.

Can you borrow a turntable with a magnetic cartridge for testing purposes?  Testing the Phono Amp is the first stage of decision making.

When you can dig out the HiFi Amp that you tested the turntable with, please post the make and model.  The manual may be available that gives the input specs for the amp.  I suspect that the input sensitivity of the Mag Phono input on your HiFi is in the 10mV range.  Since Ceramic cartridges are somewhere between 300 and 500mV or a little higher, your having to use the mag phono input of your HiFi amp is the reason that I think that your cartridge is dying.  If it was a crystal cartridge, it would be dead.  I don't think that any crystal cartridge this old would be good.  

Gotta get ready for church. If not enough gain, add 1 triode stage of amplification using a 6F5 or 6SQ7 (if you are trying to be period correct)  Alternate is to do a little hidden under chassis mod to switch in or out the Phono amp, and have a pigtail with a female RCA connector on the 1st AF amp to either add a little solid state mag amp or use a ceramic cartridge.