Best MM?

@vortrex

If I was going to acquire one vintage MM to compare with the Audio Note IQ3, which would it be? It must be compatible with a Kuzma 4Point (13g) and be somewhat easy to find, preferably NOS.

It can be a Victor X-1II, simply because it’s a mid compliance cartridge which is fine for Kuzma.
Stanton, for example, is High Compliance and works best on lightmass tonearms in theory.

I'd love to try a MM cart myself but I always get stuck between my distrust for used cartridges, on the one hand, and the fact that NOS carts that have been sitting on a shelf for decades sound like a bad idea to me (dried up suspension rubber).  

Any thoughts out there about how to cut the Gordian Knot on this?  I'm open to the idea that MC cartridges made some advances but also brought some trade-offs with them, as most new technologies do.   

... and apologies if I'm hijacking the thread - I promise to report back :_) 

@jollytinker 

I always get stuck between my distrust for used cartridges, on the one hand, and the fact that NOS carts that have been sitting on a shelf for decades sound like a bad idea to me (dried up suspension rubber).    

There is something in between which is the best for you, it's a NOS cartridge checked by the seller whom you can trust. 

But personally i prefer NOS, they are highly collectible.

I've had only 3 cartridges in 7 years with bad suspension and all of them weren't NOS. My personal experience with NOS is the best experience! 

 

I have owned the Empire 4000 D, and the Shure V 15 IV; the Shure had a brush in front of it that collected dust and it also helped in tracking warped records. I also heard Stanton and Pickering cartridges; they were all very good cartridges, but that was a long time ago.

Currently, Grado is my favorite cartridge; this is after owning a number of other cartridges that were recommended by members here. Apparently we cherish different qualities in the music, or prefer different genres of music, (some cartridges are more conducive to one genre over another) those cartridges didn't float my boat, and Grado seems to float very few boats here. What I'm saying is, this is no one size fits all.

I began with the Platinum wood body, moved up to the Sonata, and now I have the Master 2. According to the "Golden Age of Cartridges", me and Joe Grado both went backwards; me more so than him, because I paid my hard earned cash for his backward cartridges, and continue to do so.

I'm sure that nearly 100% of the people who own current MM cartridges have owned or heard those "Golden Age" cartridges; after all there were no CD's, nothing but records, and we didn't use cactus needles; therefore we had to have cartridges.

In regard to records, cartridges and TT's; we either advanced into the "high end", or sold our records and turntables. That's because back in this "Golden Age", those Golden Age cartridges and turntables didn't hold a candle to a good CD player; that's a fact that was supported by the actions of millions of people all over this Globe.

I have no idea what happened to my old Gerard GT 55, and don't care. If I had sold my records, I wouldn't be having this conversation, but after so much noise was made about records, I investigated and discovered that if one was willing to pay the price for the trip to paradise, it could be had; therefore, that ton of vinyl I already owned had to be tested.

Presently, I'm enjoying my new record collection (the newly discovered music on my old record collection). While I have purchased some new (old) records, whether or not I'll go "hog wild" remains to be seen; the records I seek are quite pricey.



Enjoy the music.