mulveling, that’s what I assumed. No guarantee, let alone "dramatic difference".
@inna Well, it can actually be quite a significant difference, but most of it is usually "personality" rather than a difference of "quality" level. Moving coils each have a distinct sonic fingerprint caused by choices made on magnet, pole pieces, coils, wire, overall design - cantilever and stylus too!
A Van den Hul Colibri sounds worlds apart from a Koetsu. Both have their fans. There is only a small number of MC motor designs; many still use the classic magnet-yoke system which goes back to Ortofon’s SPU of the 1950s. Ortofon has used a very different motor design in high-end models since its Jubilee MC (coils mounted INSIDE the magnet in very compact form - look at MC100 or MC200 too). Clearaudios are using something different again (coils like a dumbbell with pivot in middle). Colibri is "monopole", no front yoke pole piece, which is why the motor sticks out so much (and probably contributes to its sibilance too). With the classic yoke designs, you get a classic warm "vintage" sound with "softer" magnets like alnico. Or you can "harden" it up and push it towards more modern hifi sound with neodymium. Samarium cobals sounds close to neodymium. Platinum magnets sound somewhat between the two extremes, but Koetsu bought them all up. Oh and Lyra uses a variant of the yoke, with non-magnetic pieces but an extra magnet mounted in front! I find this all fascinating.
