So how many use MM cartridge and intend to keep it that way ?

I was a ZYX owner too, upgraded from silver coil Airy III to copper coil Premium 4D model. When the cantilever on my 4D was stupidly broken by accident i was shocked by the price of exchange programm to get the new 4D instead. Even with very special offer from US distributor it was definitely too much for me, i tried to save money for exchange to get my Premium 4D back to work. You know that you can’t rebuild ZYX to original specs nowhere in the world when the cantilever is broken. So they are actually exchange broken cartridge to completely new cartridge (no chance even for retip by Nakatsuka-San, only exchange to a new cartridge if you ship your broken unit back to official distributor). This is extremely expensive cartridge to live with and to use everyday! When i realized the situation i decided to try some of the best vintage MM cartridges, because before i bought my ZYX carts i owned rare Technics EPC-100c mk3 and EPC-205c mk4, but i was influenced by MC propaganda, lol
This story is about 4 years old.

Now i have more than 20 rare vintage cartridges on hands and all of them are top of the line models. About 5 of them are rare vintage MCs, the rest are MM/MI/MF.

Most of those vintage MM cartridges are even more attractive than my ex ZYX premium models. Some of the vintage MCs are still waiting my audition, but i hope i will not disappointed by my FR-7f, Ortofon MC2000 arrived this month.

My goal was to spend in a couple of years similar amount of money required for one single ZYX exchange (which is about $3000), but to try as much as possible top vintage cartridges. The idea was to try great cartridges in my system on many tonearms to find out what i really like, based on my own experience.

I would never buy single MC cartridge even for $1500 and will avoid any MC cartridges in $2000-5000 price range. Simply because $500-700 vintage MM cartridges are even better! And vintage MC under $1500 are also better than modern $3000-4000 cartridges. This is my personal opinion, of course, but at least i tried many cartridges to make this conclusion for myself.

I use Technics SP-10mk2, Luxman PD-444 and Technics SP-20 turntables. My current arms are Reed 3p Cocobolo "12inch, Sony PUA-7, Victor UA-7045, Luxman TA-1, Lustre GST-801

I’m pretty sure that vintage MM cartridges are must have for any audiophile to compare modern MC sound to the lost vintage MM sound. Most of the mega rare vintage MM carts are still under $700-1000 used, but even used $300-500 vintage MM are gian killers if you know which one to choose, thanks to the audiogon contributers, loads of great stuff was discovered over the years.

I don’t care about modern MM cartridges!

Why do you not care about them?

Sort of...  My phono pre is built in to my McIntosh C220 preamp, and it is MM only.  I have toyed with the idea of a Step-up Transformer, but the expense of a good one is daunting.  I run my modded Thorens TD-166MkII with 2 pickups, each on its own 'arm wand: A Denon  DL-160 (which is a High Output MC, so technically not a MM), and an Ortofon OM-30 Super.  I have an OM-40 stylus in waiting for when the OM-30 is finished.  Yes, there are differences between the Ortofon and the Denon, but they are mostly subtle.  I spin some vinyl, but I have to admit that I mostly digitize my vinyl for use on my server and in the car (an ongoing 10+ year process).  For this purpose, my vinyl rig is more than adequate.  I get many compliments on my needle drops from fellow audiophiles, so I guess I am doing something right, even with my not-so-high-end rig.

@nandric 

ZYX airy 3 and

Nakamichi 1000. (chakster my ZYX got a new cantilever/stylus

combo + new suspension by Axel for about 500 euro).

This is no more a ZYX, because the original ZYX cantilever/stylus combo is way different from anything else on the market if you saw them under microscope. At the same time i saw Axel's cantilever/stylus combo and compared them. I have contacted various retippers when my 4D was broken to see what they can offer. I think it's critical for ZYX cartridges and that's why they are what they are (unique in it's own class).