MM Cartridge Talk

When I returned to vinyl in the early 00's, I found a nice Philips AF 777 on which I installed a Grado Black. It had been about 25 years since I owned a turntable and I found this humble combination to be very satisfying. I think it worked especially well as the Mission speakers, I had at the time, were a bit forward and the Grado a bit laid back. Synergy

What Chakster said.  The only one of my MC cartridges that is clearly up with the best of my MM or MI types is my Ortofon MC2000.  Other LOMCs I own are also very good, and I do listen to them frequently, but no one of them stands clearly above the best of my MMs or MIs, such as Grace Ruby with OCL re-tip, B&O MMC1, Acutex LPM320, Stanton 981LZ, etc.  I don't mean to say that only vintage MMs need apply; I have a hunch that there is a new generation of MMs or MI types that are also competitive with kilobuck LOMCs.  This is only my opinion, using the only ears I own.

IMO, @myjostin should have made an addendum, as his initial Charisma failed in the first 4 months.

A few of my favorite MM carts are the Stanton 681EEE and the Shure V15VxMR for vintage/out of production. A few of my fave current models are the Goldring 1042 and the Nagaoka MP500. Grado makes some really nice sounding carts too, but they’re MI carts. 

Shure Ultra 500Shure V15V xMRStanton 681 EEE
Tops - the Shure Ultra 500 (9.3 g. w/ effective mass of 0.165 g) - more detailed, solid performance across all frequencies and tracks every platter I've ever had without effort. Naturally, it should be paired with a lower mass tonearm like an SME Series III.