What is the preferred cartrige mm or mc and why

@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?

@rauliruegas

that’s what i said:

... people are crazy when they are buying $3000-8000 MC cartridges without having a chance to audition a decent $700-1200 MM from the 70s/80s in perfect condition.

I did it the wrong way by starting off with $3500-4000 ZYX and $4500-5000 ZYX cartridges when i jumped on High-End territory. For about 18 years prior to that moment my turntable was equipped with mediorce MI like Grado, Shure and Ortofon MM carts. In between i discovered the sound of Technics 205c mk3, 205c mk4 and 100c mk3. But the opinion makers hypnotized me that MC is superior, so i tried Audio-Technica ART2000 and that was the best MC cartridge in my early days (the price was about $600 used). Now i have very rare MM cartridges and they are superior to any MC i have owned, but i’m still tryin to find some vintage MC that can compete with them, but i’m not gonna buy $3000-5000 MC anymore for sure. One of the best MC (according to our members) is already in my collection (Ortofon MC2000 NOS) along with various Fidelity-Research MC carts that i like at the moment.

Would be nice to see your MC list.

P.S. Believe it or not, but i’m waiting for my First Watt F2J amp designed for fullrange crossover-less speakers. Then i will be a battle between my tube push-pull amp vs. single-ended Class A current-source F2J.