What constitutes a "high output" moving coil cart?

There are some HOMC cartridges that put out more than I imagined. I guess the are some cartridges that will output around 1mV that I've heard that sound good. Those may not work with a lot of MM phono preamps. Some of those would fit in the med-high output category. If your still using the Goldring 2200, that looks like it puts out 6.5mV. That's 6 times more than what I had in mind.

The biggest compromise of the group would be to use a to low of an output cartridge for your phono amp IMO. The Audible Illusion link is just to see how much they (cartridges) do vary, only. Some links to look at.[http://www.musicdirect.com/p-3733-goldring-2200-mm-cartridge.aspx][http://www.kabusa.com/pregain.htm] [http://www.audibleillusions.com/technical/bulletin2.htm]

The KAB link is what Swampwalker was referring to, I think.

Wow all this negativity towards HOMCs. I really like my Dynevector 20X HO into a Graham Slee Amp 2SE. I think it sounds much more detailed and dynamic than my MM Goldring cart for instance. I am not an analog nut and don't switch tables, arms and carts very often I should add. I still want to say that I am very satisfied with my HOMC it sounds great to me and I do keep company with analog nuts with "real" low MCs.

Mechans, please don't feel we're 'dissing' HOMC cartridges across the board. For example, the Decca line of HOMC cartridges has been almost a cult favorite for decades, but it's mechanism is totally unique to that cartridge, and doesn't suffer the high inertial mass characteristic of the coils of typical HOMC cartridges. And new wire-making techniques combined with ultralight metals and coil cores have enabled some manufacturers to keep the inertial mass down. But there are still (unavoidable) issues like higher inductance (magnetic 'lag') when coil windings increase. So you see, there were/are reasons why the best MC carts remain low output.

I'm not surprised your 20X sounds better than the Goldring, but they're not in the same league, and so those results don't really tell us anything ;--) If you decide to upgrade your cartridge one day, I would recommend (based on your self description) that you keep you gear simple as it is now, and check out some of the finer MM/MI cartridges out there.

Remember, Joe Grado invented the moving coil cartridge -- but decided not to manufacture them in favor of moving iron designs. Now, that doesn't mean (as some people have assumed) that he thought MC's weren't good reproducers; but his philosophy was always about his products providing the best sonics per dollar (and himself the most profit ;--), and felt he could achieve both with the moving iron designs. Judging by the age and success of his company, he seems to have been right!
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