Moving coil VS moving magnet/iron

The Mani is a great phono stage for the price. I’ve used one as a back up.

The OC9 is nice for the price. You will get an idea what the fuss is all about, regarding MC. The II is a few bucks less, and has good reviews. I’ve used the III.

Someone will chime in with the other low price, MC’s. I had also tried a Soundsmith Otello which is very nice for the price.

If that that were my setup, I would also consider moving up the food chain with your phonostage.

I’m in the tube camp,which to my ears gives a more "organic" and believeable presentation. Subjective, of course.

Agreed. Look at better phono amp and stay with the cartridges you have for the moment.

Peter Ledermann (SoundSmith) about MI versus MC:

Lecture ONE
Lecture TWO 

Here we go with stylus "jitter" again.

chakster, these lectures are a great example of how you can bend data to support pretty much anything. Peter also conveniently forgets to mention that a mass at the fulcrum has significantly less effect than a mass at the very end of the lever. Thus the important spec to consider is the moving system's effective mass which include the stylus and cantilever in the mix and do not forget that the length of the cantilever is also a critical aspect of the cartridges mechanical behavior. He intentionally picks the worst example of a moving coil cartridge (picture included) to compare his design. There are many MC cartridges with resonance frequencies above 60 kHz. I also find it very interesting that he did not mention Joseph Grado who invented the stereo moving coil cartridge then switched to moving iron because he also thought it better. 
Peter's theory is that lower mass at the fulcrum leads to less stylus "jitter" which leads to less "noise." If he really wanted to impress me he would have digital samples of two identical turntables calibrated to the exact same output level one with his best cartridge and another with an Ortofon Anna Diamond playing the same blank groove. Would his cartridge produce less "noise?" I don't know. Neither does he or if he does he is not telling us or rather showing us. So, it all becomes just a marketing theory.
All this has nothing to do actually with how a cartridge sounds. This is a subjective judgement we all have to make for ourselves. It does seem most of us prefer moving coil cartridges. I had a Grado Statement and it was a wonderful sounding and tracking cartridge. It's only failing was that any electric field near it created noise. My understanding is that Soundsmith cartridges do not do this. I have not owned one so I can not say. The people who own them love them but it seems we always love the cartridge we have and again sound is subjective. There are some excellent MM cartridges out there but I feel comfortable in saying that the vast majority prefer MC cartridges because we have made the subjective assessment that they sound better.