This is somewhat speculative, but my guess is that most of these 1980’s cartridges were designed and ’voiced’ with the use of step up transformers, being more common than MC phono stages (called ’head amps’ in those days). And in Japan they were always more popular than active devices , even to this day.
Most of these vintage MC cartridges will sound great using a modern high quality phono stage, provided you have some flexibility for setting impedance load and gain. But in my experience the low output low impedance types - like most of the FR models - give their best using a dedicated SUT.
Most of these vintage MC cartridges will sound great using a modern high quality phono stage, provided you have some flexibility for setting impedance load and gain. But in my experience the low output low impedance types - like most of the FR models - give their best using a dedicated SUT.