With the caveat that other components in my systems were constantly evolving at the same time, I would put the Clearaudio Charisma 2 at the top of MM/MI cartridges I’ve had or heard. With the best being:
- Clearaudio Charisma v2
- Soundsmith The Voice
- Clearaudio Virtuoso v2
- Clearaudio Maestro
- Grado Reference Sonata
- Microacoustics MA2002e
- Shure M97xe
- Ortofon 2M red
In roughly that order. There’s another Grado sitting at the middle of that list, but I’m struggling to remember which one. In my experience, the Clearaudios and Soundsmiths have generally been better at comparable price points. The MA2002e is an old piezoelectric cart that remains my favorite match with the lightweight ADC tonearm on my TD160.
All this being said, and despite being committed to MM/MI carts for a decade, I finally broke down and got my first serious MC cartridge about a year ago (an Aidas Durawood) and I have to grudgingly admit that it was better than any of the MMs once I got the SUT set up properly. Unsurprisingly, the Koetsu Rosewood is better still. But both are much more finicky than the MMs ever were.
