Cartridge Opinions - Sorry

OP,
I have owned some Audio Technica cartridges and they sound wonderful.  However, they can be just a little bit of a "zing" on the top end.  Not terribly bright, just a little bit of a zing.  You can do the research and maybe others won't have the same impression.  As you probably know, that all depends on the rest of your equipment.  I also own the Hana SL and found it to be one of the more "balanced" MC phono cartridges for the under $1,000 price range.  Tonally, very pleasant to listen to.  Channel separation is very good and provides excellent soundstage and imaging.  You really can't fault it, especially in that price class.  If you do buy one be sure to give it at least 50 hours of play time to break in the suspension.  It will then deliver its' best performance in the soundstage and imaging.  Really, a very nice phono cartridge.  FYI, it has an output of 0.5mv.

@atmasphere and @chakster
Assuming an LOMC cart (and proper arm mass matching compliance) I understand the inductance parameter being lowest will push the resonant frequency (ringing) further into non-audible spectrum, you also get the benefit of lowering the mass of the cart.So the only case of looking into a HOMC cartridge would be to take advantage of the obvious higher output allowing you to match it to a less "output capable" phono stage?

Thanks for the additional replies, especially to those who stayed on topic.

How about rebuild/serviceability?

Any brands or construction types that are more easily serviced?

@luisma31 


In the 70's/80's a HOMC cartridges were designed for use with MM phono input. Probably a buyer could save on expensive SUT (or MC phono stage) associated with LOMC (low output) but still keep using an MC (high output). Industry always trying to tell us an MC is better and they can make high output MC for some people. In my opinion this is the only reason. If you want a Moving Coil cartridge but you have only MM phono stage (and your budget is limited) then you can use HOMC. To make an output much higher manufacturer should use more coil winding, it will increase a moving mass system (Moving Coil). High moving mass of a cartridge is not good in theory. This is why a classic solution was an external Step Up Transformer and Low Output MC (too keep the moving mass low). 

Moving Iron (and Induced Magnet) cartridges have lowest moving mass. Most of the decent MM also have low moving mass. Those cartridges are better than any HOMC in theory. And stylus is user replaceable.     

 

Makes sense, yet industry pushed the concept that MC was superior to MM, possibly the case for LOMC, 5 years ago I don't recall seeing the LOMC / HOMC terminology much spreaded, as I remember your posts were the first I found here advocating for vintage MM.
Thanks Chak