Highest detail cartridges

@amg56 - Absolutely.  It stands to reason that EVERY component in the chain from the table / arm / cartridge through the speakers has to be capable processing that detail and moving it to the listener's ears.

@nandric

Lucky me I do recognise all other carts

you mentioned otherwise I would belong to the ’’category’’

of ’’ignorant’’. Will you be so kind to ’’explain’’ this choice ?

You know, i managed to find working Victor MC-1 and i must say this is a very special cartridge, now i want to try more Direct Coupled models made by Victor (if i will find working samples). Your broken sample is a donor for another one which i wish to ship to SoundSmith. When the printed coil is right above the cantilever and very close to the stylus tip the sound is "so real". I use this cart on my Sony PUA-7 tonearm with brand new Signal Cable Silver Sesolution (that i bought by advice of Don) with Xhadow RCA we have soldered few days ago, JLTi phono stage.

We both know how good is the FR-7f and especially the FR-7fz. 

My MM list is a top list after a years of studying as you noticed. The AT-ML180 OCC is unbeatable (long time favorite). The Grace LEVEL II and F-14 are superb with Ruby, BR/MR (Boron/MicroRidge) or Beryllium (I also have Ceramic cantilever, but never tried it yet). The Pioneer PC-1000 mkII and Stanton CS-100 WOS are close to each other, the difference is that Pioneer has Beryllium cantilever and Elliptical tip, but Stanton WOS has special sapphire coated cantilever (looks like Ruby) and Stereohedron II tip (and optional brush infront of the cantilever). Both carts are very musical and it’s a pure joy to listen to the music with them. Pioneer PC-1000 mkII is top of the line model made for Pioneer Exclussive series of turntables, this cartridge is very rare! Someone notice that a tonearm that comes with Pioneer Exclussive was made by Micro Seiki and very close to the Micro Seiki MAX series (even the way it looks). Pioneer PC-1000 mkII was designed for this top of the line Pioneer tonearm.

The AT-ML180 ans Stanton WOS are the champs in detail retrival, because of the very nice styli (MicroLine and Stereohedron) very low tip mass etc. Grace is also amazing in this aspect (Boron Cantilever and MicroRidge tip) but even higher in compliance. Victor X-1II with Shibata/Beryllium is also gian killer MM cartridge. You owned the Galnz 61 if i remember correct. And you know Technics which is problematic when it comes to the damper, so in my opinion the AT-ML180 OCC is much better than Technics 205 mk4.

I'll be auditioning my Stanton CS-100 WOS tonight for a select group of friends. I love the little "Sweeper" on the front! At the moment I'm listening to a new album, a QRP reissue of Ella and Louis with my Audio-Technica At-ML 170 and it sounds divine. It's my favorite cart so far. Vintage carts are wonderful!

Ninetynine -interesting graph comparison.  But how doe the MIMC Star sound?