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.

128x128rvpiano

If the Decca Londons were available, that is what I would have bought.

But IME with the $13K Lyra Atlas SL, the top line, very pricey cartridge clearly justified its high price and lofty position. I moved up from a very nice Myajima Shalabi. The difference is SQ was shocking. By far, the most improvement of any upgrade in my system.

The Atlas is amazingly good. But I do need to give it a rest. And, to begin with, the Epoch3 is 4 times the output of the Atlas-1mV vs .23mV. So it seems like only that will make the Grado very dynamic. And I am pretty convinced that the Grado will sound very different. Maybe I will prefer it.

My system has recently made a tremendous change going from big box dynamic speakers to Quad 57s. The Quads powered by my AGD Audions have so much newly heard emotion that frequently brings me to tears!

I am very curious to hear what the Epoch3 does to the mids, etc.

At least one review calls the Grado, “the world’s best cartridge”. Let’s see how many grains of salt I take with that.

@rvpiano - Just in case you do peak in & look at this thread again... I really like the Virtuoso cartridge. It sounds wonderful in my system with a Thales Easy arm. I've tried other cartridges with this arm (MM/MI/MC) from my cartridge harem, & although they all sounded good after proper meticulous set-up, the humble Virtuoso shines with the type of music (electronic/electronica) I listen too most.