Top 3 high compliant mm/mi cartridges

Rnadell, Sorry for my assumption reg. your status as novice. As is the case with all assumptions thy can be right or wrong (like the 'truth values'?).
My method is ,uh, intermediary. Because of my age I can't
rememer all carts 'of the month' (pace D) so I do this
the ouder way around. Fishing in 'my waters' at ebay.de
I have enough (auction)time to check the potential candidate in the extended version of the thread. Just looking for the difference between AT 20 SL and 20 SS. I want mention the price I payd for the AT20Sl.Lucky me Raul
is not visiting this site very often...

Regards,

Dear Rnadell: Yes, as Lewm posted that Ortofon M20FLSuper is a high compliance and very good one. Btw, I can remember any vintage MM/MI cartridge that was/is low compliance all the ones I know are high compliance, normally over 20cu.

Now, you know that Mr. Pritchard was the ADC founder/designer and that tonearm you own was designed by him, well after he left ADC he start Sonus company with new cartridge designs one of them was this one that's really good performer and that I have no doubt will be a very good match with the ADC tonearm ( the cartridge is very high compliance: 50cu, I think. ):

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sonus-Gold-Blue-Audiophile-Cartridge-NEW-FREE-SHIPPING-/220770169712?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3366ed7370#ht_1227wt_1139

As Lewm point out too today MM/MI cartridges like the Ortofon 2M line are really good cartridges.

Rnadell, cartridge compliance always is important when we are trying to find out a good tonearm match but compliance ( along tonearm effective mass. ) only can tell us the cartridge/tonearm combination frequency of resonance but not its precise behavior or quality performance level.
IMHO the best we can do ( this is what I do all the time with success. ) is to mount the cartridge and see what happen.

I posted several times that in some of my cartridge/tonearm combinations the resonance frequency was really out of the " ideal " range: 4hz-6hz and I can't report any problem with its behavior or whole performance.

Now: could be that the same cartridge/tonearm combination can shows/showed better quality performance ( everything the same. ) if that resonant frequency been 10hz instead 5hz?, yes coulod be and that's why a removable headshell tonearm design is a desired characteristic because changing headshell weight we could approach that ideal resonant frequency range.

Rnadell, anyway our ears are the best judge about.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Raul,
Point taken.

There's a big difference between carts with a cu around 20, and those closer to 50. Most modern MM/MI carts have a cu around 20, and are designed to work in med mass arms. A cart with a cu around 50 (Sonus) might sound sluggish in a med weight arm. Some with a cu around 20, sound sluggish in a heavier arm.

The Sonus Formula 4 arm was a 4.5g oil damped unipivot. It can sound spectacular with carts of 20cu or greater. However, the structural rigidity will not support heavy weight or lower cu carts.

I think these aspects of cart/arm matching are often overlooked in evaluations. Japanese carts often have cu rated at 100Hz and are not comparable to 10Hz figures. Rules of thumb, multiplying 100Hz cu by 1.8 to get 10Hz cu, sometimes works, sometimes not.
Regards,

Nandric et al, I thought the issue with the AKG P8ES had something to do with the fragility of the wiring in the body of the cartridge, which is why there are so many of them out there with "one dead channel". This problem could not/would not be fixed by replacing the stylus assembly. Fortunately for Nandric, his apparently only needed the new stylus. (I've got a P8ES vdH but have yet to audition it.)

Rich, Why not try to find an ADC XLM to go with your ADC tonearm? It was once thought to be king of the hill at the 1970s retail price of ca $300 and much less if purchased from any of the then prevalent discount houses. Quality control was not the best, I can tell you.