It's a shame that Pioneed stopped making cartridges long time ago, their PC-1000 mkII was a gian killer on the reference Pioneer tonearm on this turntable.
You may not find NOS Pioneer cartridge, but you could find a NOS Stanton 881s and this great bargain was mentioned in the same TAS article where you can read about Audio-Technics AT-ML170 (one of my favorites MM).
Unfortunately the link doesn't work anymore for me: http://www.regonaudio.com/Stanton881AudioTechnicaATML70.html
Confirmed in conversation with Doug Sax (RIP), the Stanton 881 mkII was the usual monitoring cartridge of Doug Sax's legendary disc Mastering Lab. Doug Sax could buy any cartridge for his studio, but Stanton 881 mkII was his choice according to an old TAS review you read here.
Doug Sax was a mastering engineer from L.A. He mastered three of The Doors' albums, including their 1967 debut; six of Pink Floyd's albums, including The Wall. Doug also mastered albums for Miles Davis, Bob James, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Frank Zappa and many others. His Mastering Lab uses analog equipment designed by Sherwood. That, combined with his ears and expertise, helped Sax forge a long and successful career at The Mastering Lab. In 1970, Sax and Mayorga founded Sheffield Lab Recordings, an audiophile label which produced direct-to-disc albums.
Doug Sax is famous for DIRECT CUT (Direct-To-Disk) recording techniques. This is when a signal from the mics goes to the mixing console and to the cutter stylus (no reel to reel in between). Audiophiles raving about his Sheffield LAB direct cut albums. His monitoring cartridge was Stanton 881s (not even the best Stanton model, but close to the best models). In that TAS article many engineers claimed that MC has a lot of coloration and is not true to the sound. This is an opinion, but an opinion from very well educated sound engineers and mastering engineers with very good ears.
It's too bad the link is broken, because I saved only short notes on my computer from that TAS article:
http://www.regonaudio.com/Stanton881AudioTechnicaATML70.html
"What cartridge, what exotic audiophile wonder of disc playback, was producing these marvels? What cartridge could have the "lowest distortion of all," "uncanny" resolution, better than master tapes? The answer is (I wish I could put a page turn here): The Stanton 881 Mk II.
The scene shifts. Kavi Alexander, auteur of the remarkable Water Lily Acoustics series of analogue vinyl discs, is monitoring disc production by comparing test pressings to the master tape. What cartridge is he using? Another moving magnet, this time the Technics EPC-100 mk4...
Audio-Technica AT-ML170 is very similar, and very close to the actual sound of the tape. In this comparison, he says, virtually no moving coil does so well; most have seriously apparent colorations."
* Interesting point of view from TAS magazine (back issue) article called "Assessing the State-of-the-Art in Storage Media" (Issue 40). In this, J. T. Henderson reports on a listening session comparing digital master tape, analogue master tape, direct-to-disc lacquer and the "live" mike feed; the report consists of a long conversation among J. Boyk, Keith Johnson, Doug Sax, and JTH himself.
Those people were top sound engineers if you don’t know:
"On the one hand, we have assurances from the leaders of the High End recording industry that the best Moving Magnets are very close to the Master Tape and that they are capable of "uncanny" resolution. On the other hand, we have the prevailing perception, amounting almost to a shibboleth, of the High End listening community, that only Moving Coils are realistic in some sense of that word and that Moving Magnets are incapable of sonic truth. While it is clearly beyond the scope of a single review to resolve this conflict entirely, a couple of points come to mind. In direct comparison of two "sounds", tonal balance differences show up very conspicuously. Good Moving Magnets can be very nearly neutral tonally, as well as being low in the kinds of distortion that are audibly significant. Moving Coils are low in distortion, too, but typically they are quite far from neutral tonally, with a "presence range" suck-out followed by a high frequency rise."
Their choice of monitoring cartridge during the disk mastering process was Stanton 881s mkII, Audio-Technica AT-ML170 and Technics P100c mk4. All cartridges are Moving Magnet type.
BUT not every MM cartridge of today can give you what Stanton, Audio-Technica, Technics ... top models can do!
From the post of another audiogon member about Stanton 881s:
"Relating to the Doug Sax article. I recently got into vintage reel to reel. A 4 track revox B77. A record dealer friend found me 25 7.5 ips tapes. Mostly jazz from the 50’s and early 60’s. I listened almost exclusively to these tapes for a couple weeks. Going back to my mc cartridges there was a distinctly different presentation. But switching to mm (881s) it was much closer. Most noticeable was guitar and piano. MM and even better, tape, gives a fuller, more weighted sound similar to when I hear my guitar and piano in the house. My mc cartridges are all of the more full bodied sound too. But I have to say the piano from some of these tapes was the closest to the piano downstairs that I’ve ever heard in my room. But not in the audiophile sense. The tapes don’t have the frequency extension, soundstage, and air. But wait. Neither does my piano. Or my original 1962 Stratocaster through my assorted Fender amps". -sdrsdrsdr (audiogon)
Check for some nice vintage MM and MC cartridges in my virtual system.
