MM, MC, or MI cartridge
Can somebody briefly describe the difference in the sonic characteristics of these types of cartridge, if possible?
I’ve never had a MC and I’m wondering what difference it would make.
Dynamics and tonality are two most important things to create an illusion of real performance. Upgrade turntable first, tonearm second, phono stage third and cartridge forth. You will need thousands for a great MC and phono to match it. Often phono stage should be double the cost of the cartridge, or more. I hope I saved you a lot of money. Your cartridge is good. |
Hmmm, very different advice among contributors here. Who should the OP give credence to? My money is on the vinyl veterans like @lewm and @rauliruegas (and of course @mikelavigne if you can play at his level), yet use extreme caution when considering the advice of one who dabbled with one mediocre rig for a couple of months and sold it. Having a dozen or so of some of the finest vintage MMs, a few excellent MCs (both high, medium, and low output), and even some Electret (top Micro Acoustics maybe my favorite of all), I can say that all are capable of spectacular sound yet the matching of cartridge compliance to arm mass is much more important than the type of transducer. Vintage MM and Electret sound fantastic (even magical) with the lighter arms due to high compliance (and usually the higher the better) while MC, being low compliance, requires a high mass arm. Intrinsically, the high compliance MMs will track the LP groove better than the stiff MC. Unfortunately (IMO), in the later part of the last century, the industry went the way of low compliance MCs and thus the vast majority of (almost all) currently sold arms are now high mass so the decision is all but prescribed for you if you are buying or using newer arms. Of course there are exceptions but they tend to be rare. One piece of advice is to stay with the more middle-range output MCs (0.5mv minimum) or even a good high-output MC (van den Hul MC2 is one) if you can’t swing a phono stage with exceptional gain vs noise performance and adjustable loading. Trust me, you will be much happier. BTW, @inna totally nailed it. |
In some ways comparing MC and MM pickups is unfair. In general the top of the line MC pickups are way more costly than MM pickups.The question of which style is best is like a boxing match between a light weight and a heavy weight. And then there are examples that don't fit the genral rules. I noticed that one writer said MCs have less moving mass than MMs. I suspect the decades old Technics EPC 100 MK4 MM has the least moving mass and you can find serious listeners who value it highly. And often the rare Decca pickups, not MC, are cited by people like Ken Kessler as the most dynamic pickups. It's never straight forward. You need to know what kind of reproduction you like and look for a pickup that gives you that sound and whether it's a MM or MC should not be the deciding factor. Oh and keep in mind that the phono stage you choose will have a big affect both on the sound and cost. |
