Agree with Audiofeil.
In my system, which is optimized for LOMC's, I've yet to hear one which costs less than ~$2K significantly outplay several sub-$200 MMs. An LOMC that costs ~$600 would be a waste of money IME. For the same money I could buy 3 superior MM's or one MM and $400 worth of other goodness.
Not saying LOMCs aren't worth having. I listen to one every day. But it costs a fair bit of money and effort to get the performance they're capable of. In addition to $2K+ for a worthy cartridge, you need a more capable tonearm, phono stage and in fact everything.
What really good LOMC's provide that MM's and lesser MC's cannot is very low level detail. That kind of information is easily blocked or distorted by even one problematic link in the chain. There's little point feeding more information into a system that can't reproduce it accurately and it can easily make things worse, as the many threads complaining of "sibilance with my new LOMC" demonstrate. The problem is almost never with the cartridge, it's with some other component that can't handle what the cartridge produces. Tonearms and phono stages are the usual culprits, but the problem can be anywhere.
A high end cartridge should be your last upgrade, not your first. Dealers (unlike Audiofeil) who push these high margin products without regard for customer results don't want to admit this, but it's true.
In my system, which is optimized for LOMC's, I've yet to hear one which costs less than ~$2K significantly outplay several sub-$200 MMs. An LOMC that costs ~$600 would be a waste of money IME. For the same money I could buy 3 superior MM's or one MM and $400 worth of other goodness.
Not saying LOMCs aren't worth having. I listen to one every day. But it costs a fair bit of money and effort to get the performance they're capable of. In addition to $2K+ for a worthy cartridge, you need a more capable tonearm, phono stage and in fact everything.
What really good LOMC's provide that MM's and lesser MC's cannot is very low level detail. That kind of information is easily blocked or distorted by even one problematic link in the chain. There's little point feeding more information into a system that can't reproduce it accurately and it can easily make things worse, as the many threads complaining of "sibilance with my new LOMC" demonstrate. The problem is almost never with the cartridge, it's with some other component that can't handle what the cartridge produces. Tonearms and phono stages are the usual culprits, but the problem can be anywhere.
A high end cartridge should be your last upgrade, not your first. Dealers (unlike Audiofeil) who push these high margin products without regard for customer results don't want to admit this, but it's true.