MC versus MM. Which to choose.

Dear Raul, Thanks for your advice. I thought that our forum
is about (different) opinions and not about 'contenders'.
I 'use' the statements made and try to understand what they
are about before I can 'use' them. When I 'use' your statements I have no impression to use 'the person' Raul but rather that I agree with some of them and disagree with
some other. It is more a 'logical thing' you know then personal.I wish I could 'use' Carr. My first wish would be his phono-pre, the second the Atlas, the third...

Regards,

You guys are doing the gentleman who started this a great disservice. If he is still with us then we are lucky he hasn't given up on analogue and spent his money on CD.
Jonathan Carr is absolutely spot on when he says "The tracking ability of a cartridge depends greatly on the tonearm that it is installed in, and the sonic performance of a cartridge can be made or broken by the phono stage. Regarding both tonearms and phono stages, I have found MCs to be considerably more demanding of the equipment that they are paired with. Phrasing that observation slightly differently, you could say that MMs/MIs make it easier and cheaper to design a phono stage or a tonearm that sounds relatively good."
If the turntable/tonearm are modest then a good MM/MI would potentially be a better choice than a moving coil which may show up limitations in the arm. Lostears is looking at turntable/arms up to $2000 new and mentions the Clearaudio Concept - hence the question on the Clearaudio MM and MC.
Who gives a shit as to whether MC or MM is best, or if some super rare unobtanium vintage cartridge is the bees knees.
The bottom line is that the Clearaudio MC @ $800 is probably better than the Clearaudio MM @ $200.
You would giving the gentleman better advice if you suggested he compare the Clearaudio $800 MC to a Clearaudio $500-800 MM such as the Virtuoso and to consider his phono stage and the cartridge output he requires.
The Clearaudio Concept has a tonearm that is not rigid and I think needs a cartridge of medium compliance.
My suggestion would be for Lostears to arrange a comparison of the Clearaudio MC and the Clearaudio Virtuoso MM at a Clearaudio dealer, preferably with his phono stage.

Dear Lostbears, The best MM cart I own (my opinion also)
is the Virtuoso wood. As you probable know whenever a cart
get recommendation by Raul and others this cart become
an 'object of disire' so we all hunt for this cart. However
I was able to buy two specimens of this cart with broken styli on the German ebay for 50 Euro each. Then I posted them to Axel for the upgrade with line contact styli and
different cantilevers. Added cost +/-170 Euro (-19% tax
for those outside E. Union). Are the Germans crazy? No but
they are not familiar with our MM thread and are consequently ignorant about the value of this cart even with the broken stylus. For the mentioned 'hunt' one need
'some' patience and search but can ease the waiting period
with some other MM cart. Anyway this the method I use . My
latest 'hunt' resulted in one AT 180 and one Signet 9LC for
about 160 Euro each.

Regards,

Of course sometimes a thread is a little abused for the ongoing controversy about MM,MI and MC carts as it seems here in particular. On the other hand it is very interesting reading about different opinions on this topic. And this may help the thread owner too. Forget all the personal implications Raul is sometimes leaning to and better focus on the topic related issues.

My personal experience is: there are some MCs and especially MIs a MM design will never reach. I agree with Jonathan that MCs need extraordinary Phono stages and SUTs. When I started experimenting with SUTs in 2002 - since then I ended up with a total of 14 designs - the market was not open to SUTs in any way, especially the magazine writers. Focussing on a careful match you put some investment into it regarding money and time. But the result is in many cases just great.

Regarding MMs I figured out one is able to get very good results with Phono stages like the EMT JPA66 being able to calibrate all necessary parameters. I think that the negative image MMs have among most audiophiles is not justified. It is a very good alternative for a beginner`s system as well as for experienced users.

best and fun only

Raul, the audio bully, strikes again.