70’s rock pressings. Witch equipment deserve?

It depends.  You're asking audiophiles if you should buy audio equipment to enjoy your music.  Of course they are going to tell you to buy the best, most expensive gear you want to spend your money on.  The better the gear, the more revealing of poor recordings, vinyl damage, and just plain bad performances.

I have a friend that LOVES music.  He's also a musician, and he loves listening to the creative aspects of music - different beats, chord progressions, etc.  He also collects records and CDs and has probably made a very, very good return on his money (if he were to sell his collection).  What does he listen to his music on?  Mostly his laptop with cheap earbuds.  He enjoys the music every bit as most of us do, probably more.

I think it’s the biggest myth in audio that we will hear mode bad things with proper equipment and for this reason should stick to inferior cartridge, turntable, speaker, amp .... whatever.

We invest in equipment to get closer to the live performance as possible, sitting at home.

We can enjoy music even in mp3 listening to the cell phone. But musicians still record music in the studio with very expensive gear and instruments... for what ? No one can notice playing an mp3 on iPhone, but everyone can get much closer to the reference recording using improved audio equipment, this is why the reference is mastertape or high resolution digital. In both cases we can reproduce studio session only with proper audio equipment.

Digital is fine to discover music everyday online, it’s free, but people who collect records looking for physical media, not just music on background.

Musicians are not audiophiles, they are not even automatically a record collectors just because they are musicians. And they need a technical guy in the studio who can record them, mix them, master them to release a final product (analog or digital). Studio guys are not always perfect musicians, but they can be a perfect studio engineers. People who can’t play any instrument, can’t read the notes and does not have a perfect pitch, often know much more about music than musicians and often have much better taste in music (not always, there are an exception for sure).

But i'll tell you mow: some musicians not only listen to the laptops, they are often performing with a laptop instead of performing with full band live. Is it good? I don't think so. 

Finally, you should tell us what is your favorite new MM cartridges and how many of those greatest vintage MM did you try and actually compared to the modern MM ? Also it would be nice to know which modern MM you could compare to some of your new LOMC

I like the Grado cartridges. We use a Grado Gold mounted in our SL-1200 to play back tracks we've cut on our Scully  mastering lathe. Its a sort of standard- if it can play it back, we've not overcut it. And we've shown that it has bandwidth past 35KHz mounted in that arm.

Anecdotally I've run a Transfiguration Orpheus for some years. One time a channel failed so I had to send it back. While waiting for it (or a replacement), I was jones'n for tunes and realized that I had a Grado Green (at the time, retail of $35.00) sitting new in the box. Since my Triplanar is very adjustable, I set it up and took the time to do it right. It was at this point that I realized that the ability to track the cartridge correctly was far more important than the kind of cartridge you have; the Green tracked perfectly  although it sounded a bit 'up front'. Then I remembered that loading is critical on high output MM cartridges; once I get that right (using a 10K resistor) it was quite relaxed and other than having more output, was not significantly different from the Orpheus in any way I could discern. I threw some real torture tracks at it and it was effortless.

The main concern anyone should have using an older MM cartridge is that the suspension for the cantilever perishes over time; whether you are using the cartridge or not after 3-5 years it simply won't meet spec.  

I like the Grado cartridges. We use a Grado Gold mounted in our SL-1200 to play back tracks we’ve cut on our Scully mastering lathe. Its a sort of standard- if it can play it back, we’ve not overcut it. And we’ve shown that it has bandwidth past 35KHz mounted in that arm.

Grado GOLD is relatively cheap cartridge, i like Grado too, but by reference Grado is Signature model from Joseph Grado (model XTZ).

Anecdotally I’ve run a Transfiguration Orpheus for some years. One time a channel failed so I had to send it back. While waiting for it (or a replacement), I was jones’n for tunes and realized that I had a Grado Green (at the time, retail of $35.00) sitting new in the box. Since my Triplanar is very adjustable, I set it up and took the time to do it right. It was at this point that I realized that the ability to track the cartridge correctly was far more important than the kind of cartridge you have; the Green tracked perfectly although it sounded a bit ’up front’. Then I remembered that loading is critical on high output MM cartridges; once I get that right (using a 10K resistor) it was quite relaxed and other than having more output, was not significantly different from the Orpheus in any way I could discern. I threw some real torture tracks at it and it was effortless.

I did get the point using 10k resistor, i’m using 100k Vishay Naked Foil instead, all Grado are MI (not MM :))

The main concern anyone should have using an older MM cartridge is that the suspension for the cantilever perishes over time; whether you are using the cartridge or not after 3-5 years it simply won’t meet spec.

No one would buy all those expensive vintage cartridges if there could be any single problem with suspension or anything else, but we have a big group of people here on audiogon who’re hunting (or hunted) for vintage high-end cartridges (MM, MI or MC). People are not stupid, those who have less experience with vintage MM or MC always scare others. Those old cartridges are superior to many new cartridges, condition must be perfect. I bought over 50 of them and except for the Technics i can’t remember any vintage MM cartridge with softened rubber suspension. And my high compliance cartridge are still high (rubber damper is not stiffer). What is that ? A miracle ?

P.S. I have a good news even for the owners of Technics top of the line cartridges P100cmk4 and EPC-100cmk4 (they are the most problematic and this is where the suspension always fails): JICO REPAIR SERVICE in JAPAN can replace the old TTDD damper without replacing the original Technics cantilever and tip. I want to make it clear: this is not about new Jico stylus replacement, it’s about repair of the damper only (original technics boron pipe cantilever is intact). Probably it’s the best new repair service worldwide, because JICO is the manufacturer and their tech skills in microsurgery must be great. Anyone? I know you guys love to repair your cartridges. 

I don't know what kind of equipment you own  But I use a Shitt Mani phono pre.Its as good as Regas and others selling for $500 .I have lots of 70s Rock and Prog and Soundtracks ....ELP sounds great Now.