Chakster, he bought the Nagaoka. be happy for him instead of your usual BS about cartridge choices of what is good and what is not.
We’re talking about technical things here than you
@mr_m do not understand, probably. I’m sorry for you. You can send your Christmas Card to the OP if you want to celebrate his purchase with him!
I’m talking about something that every cartridge designer understand better than you. It’s obvious that MicroLine profile is superior to Elliptical profile, because it’s not only last 3 times longer, but it reads the groove much better and reproduce music with noticeable extensions on both ends (such ass much deeper bass and crystal clear highs).
The OP noticed than Nagaoka cartridges are low compliance Moving Permalloy carts!
Actually the MP-200 is not bad, it’s better than entry level MP100 with bonded conical tip, or MP110 and MP150 with very low dynamic compliance at 6 cu (100Hz).
The MP200 dynamic compliance is 7.2 cu @ 100Hz which is about 12cu @ 10Hz - this is still a low compliance. This may be one of the reason why the MP200 frequency response is very models 20Hz - 35kHz, not to mention its average 0.4 x 0.7 Elliptical profile. And it’s not just about specs in the manual, it’s about cartridge limitations in real life.
Higher compliance Audio-Technica with MicroLine stylus tip on Gold Plated Boron cantilever is a better cartridge than low compliance Nagaoka MP with Elliptical profile on Boron cantilever.
The AT-ML170 and the AT-ML180 in my opinion are the best MM cartridges ever made, they are not available today, but newer AT cartridges available at very reasonable cost (many people admitted that in this topic). The best MM/MI cartridges are normally high compliance, the tracking abilities of those high-ish compliance carts are simply amazing.