Upper Level Vintage DD Strenghts and Weaknesses

@chakster 

This is the Ortofon MC200U, which is the 1/2 inch version. They did make one with an integrated head shell. This integrated design also was sold under the Concorde name, and they had a T4P version called the CMC I believe. The one I have looks like the OM body cartridge, but its silver and has a non user replicable stylus. 

This is a cartridge I have owned before. I remember thinking it was respectable but not really a wow moment. But I wanted a cartridge for casual listening to keep the hours off my main cartridge so I grabbed this one again. I installed it on a Zupreme headshell with stock cartridge wires, and while this is probably too much mass for it, its what I had at the time. I think I will order a carbon fiber head shell to use with this cartridge. I got the pleasant but a bit unexciting presentation, and I also had a bit of low level hum. So I swapped in some silver litz cartridge wires I had recently bought, and that did the trick. No noise, and more open presentation. I am enjoying this cartridge, and even as we speak its playing at this moment. The sound is interesting, its somewhat effortless with good flow, a bit fuller than many modern cartridges, but still well detailed but the truth is its not as resolving as my ZYX or Transfiguration. But this cartridge is just meant for casual listening, and one where i will use the hours up and then send it as a trial to a new retipper to see what he is capable of. 

This led me down memory lane and thinking about the vintage moving coils I have liked in the past, and in some ways wish I still had here. I enjoy listening to the Denon 103M which reminds me a lot of the Denon DL304. But the output voltage is .12 mV, and also the Fidelity Research MC202 with an output voltage of .13 mV. These are tough output voltages to work with, but I wonder if the low number of coil windings is what contributes to the wonderful sound of those cartridges. At that time you likely had to use step up transformers. In my case I have an Esoteric E-03 phono stage that can handle those low voltages. I prefer the sound of an active phono stage over a two piece set up using a SUT in the first gain stage. 

The Ortofon MC200 is even worse with an output voltage of .09 mV. But it uses some pretty snazzy technology for a cartridge this age. Boron cantilever, fine line nude (line contact) stylus, samarium cobalt ring magnet, and Ortofons WRD damping system which is still found on their higher level cartridges today.

So all in all its a nice cartridge, and I am getting very good sound and I bought it very inexpensively. 

The one I have looks like the OM body cartridge, but its silver and has a non user replicable stylus.

So it’s like this, but without replaceable stylus?
Here is the specs for "U"

Interesting that these type of cartridges were popular back then, so many manufacturers made "OM-alike" design, but most of them were MM.

SONY made an MC-1 and MC-3 with, but my personal favorite are MM XL-50 with Boron Pipe (and very rare XL-70 with Sapphire cantilever). I was lucky to find a few NOS samples of XL-50, now I hope to replace my XL-70 with NOS unit. 

Accutex (Azden) cartridges have the same "OM-alike" design.

Stanton and Pickering also made something similar.

The Ortofon MC200 is even worse with an output voltage of .09 mV. But it uses some pretty snazzy technology for a cartridge this age. Boron cantilever, fine line nude (line contact) stylus, samarium cobalt ring magnet, and Ortofons WRD damping system which is still found on their higher level cartridges today.

I never tried Concorde or OM MC200, but I have Ortofon MC2000 with terribly low output too, and all the advanced technology of that age. MC2000 is completely different from MC200.

the Fidelity Research MC202 with an output voltage of .13 mV. These are tough output voltages to work with, but I wonder if the low number of coil windings is what contributes to the wonderful sound of those cartridges. At that time you likely had to use step up transformers. In my case I have an Esoteric E-03 phono stage that can handle those low voltages.

Besides the FR best 7f and 7fz, I enjoyed PMC-3 and now discovered the MCX-3 designed by Ozawa (now Shelter) which I posted in FR dedicated thread recently.

Vintage cartridges really isn't my thing, nor is owning a couple dozen of them. I only have one system and a limit of three turntables. So I need 4 or 5 cartridges at the most. The MC200 is meant to be a casual listening cartridge as I have a lot of music on vinyl that is not duplicated in my digital collection. Yes I can stream but I find my vinyl sounds better. I paid $105 shipped for the MC200 and I will use up the hours in the diamond and then send it off to a retipper who claims he can replace a diamond on stock cantilever and get factory quality alignment. We will see, this is a good test mule for that. 

The sound is fundamentally different than current Ortofon cartridges. I believe when CD came out manufacturers had a different target for voicing with their new designs. This cartridge comes from the pre CD era so it does present music differently, and its a nice change of pace to have. Perhaps I will acquire another vintage cartridge at some time, I have always wanted to own one of the Kiseki or perhaps a Shinon. 

Actually who knows what the future holds. My system is pretty well done as I have three good tables and I only run one audio system and the gear I got is long term keepers. So maybe i will end up exploring vintage MC cartridges. 

I think you would find, or at least in my opinion, MC cartridges have advanced quite a bit more in terms of sound quality than have moving magnet or moving iron iron cartridges, since the good old days of the 1970s. I choose that era because the first MC cartridges to reach the US market did so in the early 1970s, to the best of my recollection. Specifically we received the Supex line of cartridges from Japan at about that time. In my opinion, the Supex cartridges were no match for any of the better moving magnet and moving iron cartridges of those days. That could be because there was a dearth of devices that had sufficient gain to handle the low output of the cartridges. Mark Levinson was one of the first to produce such a black box which could be used ahead of a moving magnet phono stage to add gain. I suppose there were also SUT‘s back then, but I have no memory of them. However, gurus like Harry Pearson jumped on the bandwagon right away, and his praise of the Supex was way over the top compared to what my own ears told me back then. I was not even tempted to own one. My point is that I think you would have more fun investigating vintage moving magnet and moving iron cartridges and stick with later production moving coil types, say from the 1990s onwards to the present.

@lewm
I currently use a Transfiguration Audio Proteus and ZYX 4D. Also have an Ikeda Kawami which counts as a classic MC but sounds nothing like one. The Proteus and 4D meet my needs for modern MC and I am content with them. Anything I do now is just for fun, to explore, but for my best sound reproduction I got what I can afford, I dont't have the resources to climb higher.