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Moving Iron Carts or stick with LOMC

I've been thinking off adding as second arm to my table ( Garrard 301 as seen in my system pictures) the second arm will be for my High compliance VDH Cart so I'll have an open spot on my Jelco 750L 12" tone arm. SO I'm thinking of trying out a moving iron (MI) cart. 

Phono stage is Gold Note PH 10 so all the settings I will ever need for just about any cart. 

 I'm looking for recommendations for carts in the $500-$2000 range as I know little about MI carts as far as owning one or hearing one. I suppose the big question is, is it worth trying, i'm sure there will be people on both sides, but what got me interested was a write up about the Grado reference v2 MI cart and I like how they described the sound as midrange centric, I have all the detail I need on my VDH I'm looking for a little more romance so to speak with my second cart. 

What stylus types work best on MI carts? I've always like a VDH stylus and found the conical a little dead sounding (Denon 103 for example). 

As for Vintage I have no issues with going older lets keep this in the easily obtainable realm though. 

Grado reference v2 at $1500 and the Soundsmith Carmen Mk2 $1000 ( on sale right now for $700) are two that caught my eye so far both have interesting price and reviews. 

Well of course I could be going totally down the wrong path so feel free to knock me back on track if that's what I need. 

Glen (one N) 

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glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick OP
1,709 posts
 
Interesting read so far my friends thanks for the recommendations and insight into MM-MI carts, been many years since I've even heard a MM cart let alone a MI.  

Really gives me thought as to if I'm going the right path maybe its time to let the old VDH cart go and focus on the Jelco and medium - low compliance carts, as in modern.  Honestly I'm not a huge fan of the SME 3009 series 3, quite finicky if I do say.
lewm
13,229 posts
 
 I agree with Nandric’s inference that one cannot ascribe  the good or bad sound quality of a particular cartridge to its moving mass. If that were so, it would be very easy to pick out the very best sounding cartridges, by just looking at the spec sheet. For example, many moving magnet cartridges sound superior to my ears when compared to Many but not all moving coil types or moving iron types. This hobby does not lend itself to gross generalizations.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Another benefit of MI:

NON SENSITIVE TO CAPACITIVE LOAD  
totem395
390 posts
 
I own both the Pickering XLZ-7500s and the XSV-5000s 
an interesting note is after looking into things it was 
confirmed they use the same stylus although OEM provides 2 different replacement stylus numbers, another oddity 
of Pickering.

I have interchanged the two and found no difference I
can detect. 
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@totem395 Fake styli must be avoided as none of them have Stereohedron Nude Diamond. Hope yours are originals. If you’re using a stylus from XSV series on XLZ series then i don’t think it’s a good idea. But i don’t have XSV-5000 anyway, i have XLZ-4500s and original stylus is black/gold D4500s. On my XLZ-7500s the stylus is D7500s.

Here is Stanton / Pickering Cartridge-Stylus Compatibility chart, but it's not complete. 
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