You've run some pretty fancy MC's, but the _______ MM cartridge really impressed me

I have Grado MM Mono, no hum.

My friend had a Grado MM Stereo, it hummed. Steve at VAS gave him the clue that many Grado cartridges hum.

Goldring: I heard their Eroica MC LX 0.5mv low output which needs signal boost.

https://www.goldring.co.uk/goldring-eroica-lx-cartridge.html#tab2

I have not heard, but I suspect their High Output version, same Gyger 2 stylus also sounds terrific. 2.5mv output uses MM phono input, no signal boost needed. 

https://www.goldring.co.uk/goldring-eroica-hx-cartridge.html#tab2

Stanton 881s mkii

I found an NOS example on Reverb. Lovely, balanced, great sounding cartridge and my ears are very much attuned to the ‘modern’ MC sound. The only drawback was the mounting scheme which involves old, hardened nylon pieces that appear to be untapped. Other than that, a very worthwhile cartridge.  

Sumiko Talisman S Sapphire Tube, van den Hul 2.0g; sep > 30db; bal 0.5db
I’m hoping a spec more bass out of it’s sapphire tube cantilever. Best bass I ever had was V15Vxmr beryllium cantilever. Friend coming over tomorrow, perhaps I will mount it today!

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I did mount/align it. I played some Cecil McBee, Alternative Spaces before my friend arrived, very impressed.

https://www.discogs.com/master/204354-Cecil-McBee-Alternate-Spaces

Not compared it’s sound yet, especially bass output to current AT33PTG/II. Because slight signal strength change, Sumiko 2.6mv; AT 3.0mv, so need to get some pencil marks ready for equal volume, then compare. Happily, both MC’s have 10mv coils and use the same impedance setting on my SUT, just switch inputs with slight volume adjustment.

Friend arrived, we finished listening to Cecil, both loved the sound. He is very familiar with my system sound and a few of my cartridges, including playing his Goldring here.

He brought some ’new to him’ LPs, looked like they had never been played, Sumiko sounded terrific, soon just totally involved in the sound.

He also brought an ’apparently never played’ Louis Armstrong, 2 mono lps, 'Half Speed Mastered' with recordings from 1936 to 1938. All original Decca recordings re-issued.

https://www.discogs.com/release/6970821-Louis-Armstrong-Big-Bands-Louis-Armstrong

Switched to Grado MM Mono, and they sounded very very good. Big warp, didn’t bother the Grado tracking 1.5g a bit. If you didn’t look, no idea the big warp existed.

Playing that big warp with a Stereo Cartridge, in Mono mode could not be good, the Stereo cartridges pick up any vertical movement, and your preamp doubles the resulting noise in Mono Mode.

Without the warp, nearly new condition of this modern groove Mono release (1985), a Stereo cartridge played in Mono Mode probably would have been quite good, however the Mono Cartridge always makes a small and sometimes large improvement.

We seemed to notice, there was an improvement in the 1938 recordings over the 1936 ones, I’ll have to give a second listen. I wonder if a new mic or mixing board, .... was introduced, some game changer. Or just better engineers. Anybody know?

Both the ortofon 2m Bronze and the shure m97xe impress me. Own them both, among various moving coils, such as the Hana el, denon dl 103, dynavector 20x2 (low), & dynavector 10x5 (low). Also own other MM, such as ortofon om10, AT 520eb, both nice cartridges.

To be fair to Grado, it’s usually not the cartridge per se that hums, it’s either the TT grounding scheme, as in the case with a Rega TT, or it’s EMI radiated from the motor, if it comes too close to the cartridge. There are remedies in both cases.