What is the preferred cartrige mm or mc and why

Trust your ears.  I do.

After buying 2nd to the top line Conrad Johnson electronics and a Pass Labs phonostage, I thought I was good to go with my Rega RP6 with the Exact2 cartridge.  Every time I put on an album (after cleaning it on my Clearaudio Smartmatrix Pro), I was really, really sad.  Why?  Because it sounded like crap, that's why.  Compressed soundstage, lack of definition, and no finesse.  No particular bass presence, either.

Before deciding to get out of vinyl, I ponied up for a Rega RP10 with the Apheta2 MC cartridge.  Now?  All I buy is vinyl.

I know the really high end guys poke fun at the Apheta's (both 1 and 2), but it sounds good to my ears.  Fremer was right; classical sounds the best, but rock & roll is serviceable, and way, way better than on the RP6 with the MM cartridge.

My next stop is to try a Grado because I love the house sound of the headphones and had Grado cartridges growing up, or go with a Hana SL and see if i saves my RP6.

Happy listening.

I don’t have enough experience to say definitely -- and I doubt that you could make a single generalized rule about MM vs MC; I suspect there are really great ones of each type.

That said, conventional wisdom is that MC is better because of the lower mass of the moving coil vs moving magnet. But then there’s the additional cost of SUT or phono stage (unless your system already has a MC input).

My own experience is limited; I moved to a Dynavector 10x5 HOMC in the last few years, and love it, compared to the MM Rega Elys I had before.

Gasbose

@bsme85 , your comment was entirely unhelpful and not very courteous.

@gillatgh
You still need to do your homework

@liamowen re:

My next stop is to try a Grado because I love the house sound of the headphones and had Grado cartridges growing up, or go with a Hana SL and see if i saves my RP6.

I agree about the grado cart’s - very nice

However - You might want to rethink a Grado on a Rega - I had one for about a week - they can hum and the hum gets louder as the cart gets closer to the motor as the album plays.

Having said that, my experience was back n the 90’s - so things on the Rega motor front or even the Grado’s may have changed,

Here’s a 2008 Audiokarma posting...
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-dreaded-grado-hum-on-my-rega-planar-3.188070/

My cart is a Soundsmith modified Denon DL 103 - with the Optimized Countour Contact Line stylus and ruby cantilever, is superb - but it does have a shim to add a little mass for optimum Rega compatibility..

You do need to use a mirror’d protractor for percise alignment on higher resolving stylus types to get the best out of it - but an elyptical stylus
might be OK using a paper protractor.

The standard 103 is very good and great value at only $230, but the SS version (add another $400) extracts the most delicate nuances from vinyl.

Regards - steve

If the buyer will summarize the cost of that cheap Denon + the cost of refurbishing work then he will come to the amount of $630 + shipping both ways. We’re not counting the price of the SUT, Headamp or MC phono stage here (it will cost much more with it added to the cost).

For $700 anyone can buy an amazing ORIGINAL cartridge with superior cantilever/stylus combo. It can be Grace F9 Ruby or F-9F with Shibata, Audio-Technica AT-ML170 (Gold-plated Boron Cantilever and MicroLine typ) ... i can add more to the list in MM class and they are not in the cheap plastic body like Denon 103. If you believe in magic refurbishing then all those carts can be refurbished by SoundSmith too. The price for those models with broken cantilevers are even cheaper than Denon 103. Also any owner can try to find original stylus replacement. Those cartridges are superior to Denon LOMC and does not require expensive SUT/Headamp, just MM phono stage with 45kOhm or 100kOhm load. So why bother with refurbishing of the Denon design from the 60s?