Advice needed on MC cartridges
I’ve an Ortofon Black 2M cartridge on my VPI Classic 2 turntable, It’s a moving magnet type cartridge with a Shibata stylus and cost about $700 when purchased. I could easily be wrong, but am under the impression that the Ortofon 2M Black is about as good as it gets with MM cartridges and if I wished to upgrade I’d need to be thinking about moving into a MC, moving coil, type.
So I’ve been trying to learn something about moving coil cartridges and what differences or improvements in sound quality might be obtained by using one. My integrated amp, a Luxman 507uX Mk2, has a built in phono stage and can play either type,
Generally speaking, how much more would need to be spent on a MC cartridge before a noticeable, or significant improvement, might be heard in sound quality over the Ortofon 2M’s performance? What improvements in performance might you obtain using one a better quality MC over the Ortofon 2M Black? And third, what MC cartridges might you recommend that would fit in performance and budget wise with a system composed of the above equipment plus Magico A3 speakers. My other equipment is a Marantz Ruby CD/SACD player and a Shunyata Denali Hydra power conditioner.
I’ve never heard a MC cartridge in use so would be interested in following your advice and recommendations to see if I can find a dealer or someone that might be able to demo one so I can hear what the differences might be in performance. Thank you for any responses or suggestions
Mike
Thank myjostin. Is there anything particularly identifiable in the sound of MI’s you know of that might distinguish them from MC’s, or make some folks prefer MC’s for some reason? I’ll study up on the ones you mention tomorrow. Appreciate your assistance, I know what you mean about your wife’s input. My late wife would have killed me by now if she knew of all my spending on stereo equipment since she passed away four or so years ago. Appreciate yours while you’ve got her. Thanks, Mike |
I'm very sorry to hear that. I do not know what I would do without my wife. If buying stereo equipment keeps you from drinking yourself do death I am sure your wife would tell you to buy away. The Soundsmith is one of the best tracking cartridges you can buy. Very few MC cartridges can track at their level given the same type of stylus and cantilever. Sound wise the Soundsmiths are very balanced. Their amplitude performance across the frequency spectrum is dead flat and their resonance point is way up above the audio spectrum. Because of their very low moving mass their resonance point is much higher than any MC cartridge I know of except perhaps the low output Lyras and My Sonics. They have no sonic character which for some people is their downfall. Many people prefer a cartridge with character, more bass or more treble. Some distortions can give a cartridge a euphonic character. IMHO these distortions, in most cases interfere with proper imaging. |
Dear @skyscraper : You have really short memory. When I touched the unipivot issue I gave in the same post the VP 3-D bi-pivot option and way before that I posted a warning with SS cartridge due that can't be handled directly by your Luxman and now you are thinking in the LO PAUA MK2 that needs at least 470 ohms as loading impedance when your Luxman has fixed 100 ohms and if you want that SS cartridge you or a technician needs to change that stock resistor inside the Luxman. R.
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Mijostyn, like you I do prefer a flat uncolored response, so a Soundsmith MI cartidge should be just the ticket in that regard. Thanks for describing the attributes of their cartridges. I watched a couple of Youtube videos by Soundsmith owner Peter Lederman last night, who was describing how he designed his cartridges to address the things you mention about them. Quite interesting. I’ll do some more research on the Lyra and My Sonics you mentioned as well. Thanks. Raul, I spent considerable time last night studying the impedance issue you mentioned in your earlier post in regards to the Soundsmith Paua impedance requirements. Not even knowing what impedance is, that took some doing. Here is what I found out. The Soundsmith Paua currently available operates at the standard 470 ohm impedance commonly used for mm cartridges. Looks like some redesigning has been done. Here are the specs listed for the Paua on the Uptown Audio site: Look at the last spec listed. Specifications: The 470 ohm setiing is available as the MM phono amp (phono stage) setting on the Luxman 507uX MK II. So I should be good there if I end up going with the Paua. I’m only in the early stages of research however, so we’ll see. I do recall you mentioning the VP 3-D bi-pivot option, now that you mention it and wondered what that was, but didn’t realize that it was a mod, rather than a separate tonearm. I am paying close attention to your posts, so please be flattered, And I do admit to never having had much short term memory, especially when it comes to remembering person’s names, I take a lot of notes, write things down, and bookmark lots of sites as I research to compensate. Mike |
