edcyn, I just cannot agree with your hypothesis, based of course only on my own listening in my own system. A great cartridge is a great cartridge, regardless of its operating principle. A great cartridge will give you those things you describe. Many mid-priced LOMC cartridges cannot hold a candle to the best MM and MI types, in the very qualities you admire. Again, based on my own listening experiences. For example, you mention "tonality". In my experience many LOMC cartridges fail at conveying the tonality of a real piano (as opposed to an electric one). Many good MM cartridges do a better job, possibly because as Raul says, they tend to be high in compliance and thus can better reproduce the incredible dynamics of striking a piano key without a hint of mistracking which seems to produce a kind of distortion that makes acoustic pianos sound like electric ones. I don’t know this is the reason, but there is some logic to it.
