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

Raul, For what it’s worth I have an NOS Stanton 881S mk2, as well as an NOS Stanton 981LZS, and a used sample of 981LZS, as well. All thanks to you and your MM thread. Else I might never have appreciated the great now vintage MM and MI cartridges.

Back to the Philips.  It seems odd to first add a filter apparently built into the cartridge to make its voltage output vs frequency curve mimic that of a traditional magnetic cartridge and then connect its output to a conventional RIAA phono stage which re-corrects the frequency response.  Would it not be more pure to run the uncorrected output into a simple linear preamplifier?  (Yes, there is the shelf between 500Hz and 2kHz, built into the RIAA specification, but that by itself would be easier to compensate for in the preamplifier alone, or so it seems to me.)  I guess that built in filter (and reduction of voltage output) was deemed necessary back in the day to encourage sales to 'philes who already owned MM stages.

My favorite back in the day was the B+O cartridge. I had the top of their line. Do not remember the model #. 

@mijostyn - Might that have been the MMC 20CL?

MMC1 or MM20CL. I destroyed the OEM cantilever on my MMC1 because of the stupid built in stylus guard. Had it replaced by SS but their sapphire cantilever is solid as opposed to a hollow tube in the original and looks less delicate. I haven’t auditioned the repaired version but the original was one of the best cartridges ever. Tracked everything at 1g.