Top 3 high compliant mm/mi cartridges

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.

Dear Fleib: +++++ " 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. " +++++

My Sonus Dimension 5 sounds nothing less than spectacular on the Grace G.945 that's a medium EM tonearm and the Gold Blue sounds prety good on my AT 1503 that is more on the high EM side.

As I posted if we can is good try to put the resonance frequency around 8hz-10hz but if not the best way to go is: listen and decide.
Through the years and through a lot of test procedures with a lot of different MM/MI cartridges I found out that that tonearm/cartridge resonance frequency is important but not to important for we " stop " what we doing till we have the right EM tonearm. I found out that we can achieve more differences on quality performance through headshell changes ( different build material and headshell shape. ) than trying to match that resonance frequency.

I own the Ortofon MC2000 ( LOMC. ) that's a heavy weight cartridge with a high compliance ( for a LOMC cartridge. ) well this cartridge received a rave review through Audio magazine ( december 1984. ), the cartridge was tested in a whole Technics combo ( TT and tonearm. ) where the resoance frequency ( measured twice because the reviewer can't belive it can works. ) was: 5.1hz.

One of the LPs that the reviewe used was the Telarc 1812 recording and you know what: he loved, the cartridge performs with out any trouble on the bass with those " terrible " recorded canon shots.
The reviewer was nothing less than B.V. Pisha it self.

It was the best cartridge/tonearm match?, from the resonance frequency issue point of view certainly was not but performed as a " best match ". I already had a lot of this same experience with several cartridge/tonearm combinations.

Analog is a set of " imperfections " where the usual theories many times does not conforms as we could wait.

The performance and relationsship between a cartridge ( any ) and a tonearm ( any ) is " complex " because involve several and different factors that have influence on that performance level combination.
IMHO and as I posted that resonant frequency cartridge/tonearm subject can't give us a precise predictable quality performance level behavior.

Till today I never readed or found out any kind of " model " that predict(ed) in precise way what I will be listen in any cartridge/tonearm combination. Tha's why Dlaloum's ( in the other thread. ) " intent " is not only a enormeous one but with no " predictable " precise cartridge performance: at least not what we have to wait when listen it.

I respect your opinion that I assume comes from first hand experiences.
My first hand experiences as some other persons first hand experiences are what I posted here.

I'm not saying that the resonant frequency subject is not important because it is, things are that IMHO that sole parameter is not enough for we can decide which tonearm we could use it and till I have that " model " that can predict the cartridge true quality performance my advise is: please listen with what you have and decide according.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Hello Raul,
I agree with you that too much is made about cu and mass. It is often hard to predict the outcome of a highish cu cart in a heavier arm. I never owned a Sonus cart and therefore never tried one on my Sonus arm. That might be interesting, especially with your results on a much heavier arm. On the other hand, my M20FL Super seems to sound sluggish on my med/heavy arms. Maybe it's the combination, but it seems to sound much better on an 11g Alphason 100S or a 8g Unitrac.

Light weight/low mass arms usually don't sound good with heavy, low cu carts. At least that has been my experience. Resonance goes toward the audible band and the structure of the light arm can't handle the mass or energy.

I didn't mean to imply that strict rules had to be observed, matching cu to mass. With a good tracking cart of 20cu, a wide range of arms can be used successfully. I found this to be true with my Stanton 980. Results were somewhat different with the M20FL. It seemed sound thicker, although I didn't even try the 980 in my heaviest arm.
Regards, fleib

Dear Lew, I would love to read about your impression reg.
AKG 8 ES and other MM carts 'waiting' for your time.
But now your project with SP 10 mk3 is at last finished
we may hope to read less 'technical-theoretical' speculations and more musical 'reports'. I know that you are also a musician and I have the inclination to trust
more a musician then a technician.
Regarding AKG carts . According to AKG the problem was the
suspension ( 'rubber ring'), say, hardening as function of
time. To avoid probable liability AKG destroyd all their
stocks of carts and styli. I have never heard about 'coil
problem'. So even those who own the 'NOS' stylus have no
quarantee that their example will be ok (sorry).
So it seems that those who lack the stylus should follow
T_bone's suggestion (04-23-11) while we all may hope that
some or all retip services are also able to repair the suspension. If some of us is confronted with the coil problem the solution is obvious: bay an other corpus.
I posted three of them + a broken stylus (pace T_bone) to
HIFI79STUDIO and ordered the cheapest retip: aluminium cantilever with a elliptical stylus (100 Euro). If the 'pudding' is 'tasteful' I may try boron cantilever with some more 'exotic' stylus.
Regards,