I disagree. Modern moving magnet cartridge technology benefits from the latest refinements in material, design and manufacturing techniques that didn’t exist in the 80’s, when those processes were relatively inefficient.
No, try to find any new cartridge with Hollow Pipe Boron Cantilever, Beryllium cantilever, Diamond cantilever for under $500. Wish you good luck on it :)
The microline styli found on relatively inexpensive cartridges such as the Audio-Technica VM540ML (mslp $250) and VM740ML (mslp $330) are vastly superior conical and elliptical profiles in all respects. They are similar in performance to the vaunted Shibata profile, but with much better stylus longevity. All this in “unfashionable” moving magnet design, but still able to deliver excellent performance along with good value.
Right, the Audio-Technica is a great manufacturer even today, their cartridges are reasonably priced and they are very good, but if you will compare those new MM to the best AT moving magnets from the 80s (like the Audio-Technica AT-ML180) you will understand why this example can be sold for $2-3k today in NOS condition.
The question is not about the MicroLine profile, but also about the cantilever and definitely about the generator. Try to find an AT cartridge with hollow pipe Boron or hollow pipe Beryllium cantilever with a nude diamond of extremely low mass. They did it back in the 80s. I’ve owned many AT cartridges, inspected cantilevers styli under my macro lens. The new AT cartridges are different, but not better. As many other manufacturers the diamond is simply glued to the cantilever with relatively big amount of glue around the tip, i saw that on my Audio-Technica ART-2000 LOMC which was a great MC cartridge, but the AT-ML180 from the 80’s killing it, and it’s MM design, just look at the construction and check the specs here. They made two different versions of that cartridge.
In this thread i have posted an images to compare old (dynavector) and new (soundsmith) ruby cantilevers, you will see that the new method is simplified compared to the old method (much more complicated and more expensive method). I do not see a progress, only regress, i think it’s because of the cartridge demands was much higher in the 70s/80s than today. It was an analog era. Even taking in count an awful price strategy of today’s high-end, the quality of the best vintage cartridges from the analog era are better, well at least to my ears ( and i’m not alone on this forum with this statement).
P.S. I hate conical/spherical profiles, i don’t use cartridges with conical stylus profile at all. I have a few elliptical and hyper elliptical which are really good, but most of my favorite MM or MC cartridges are Line Contact type (Stereohedron, Shibata, Replicant 100, Fritz Gyger, Paroc, MicroRidge depends on the patent).
Grace back in the days made all kind of cantilevers for their LEVEL II and F-14 cartridges: Alluminum, Boron Pipe, Sapphire, Ruby and even Ceramic which is the rarest cantilever ever made.