New cartridge for MMF 5

I used to own an MMF5 with a Goldring MM and did not find it harsh. If you are finding it VERY bad, my guess is the problem is somewhere else, like playing rock music too loudly, meaning beyond the system's ability to handle it. But if the CD sounds good to you, the problem may well be in the tt. Here are my suggestions - I found the MMF5 to be very sensitive to vibration. Placing the table on 3 cones seemed to help quite a bit. I used very cheap, ordinary spiked cones from Dayton and they worked fine. Second, a Herbies mat made a huge difference on this table, especially in the bass. This is funny, because the same mat on my Linn totally ruined the bass, so it's a case by case thing. Herbies offers full money back on all his products, which is cool. I would try that before changing the cartridge, but if you want a recommendation, the Goldring Eroica high-output MC is very nice for the money and will work well in the Pro-ject arm. But first try the cheaper stuff and make sure to keep the stylus clean. Good luck.

Hello Fra77, my question would be do you intend to upgrade the table or phono in the future. If so I would save most of your money for that upgrade and get an older MM/MI. There are some great $100 to $250 options available. Also I think I remember that the Goldring 1012 stylus could be upgraded.

If you are going to be keeping things as they are for a while I would do some DYI mods to the MMF5. Look online and on this forum.

I enjoyed my time with the MMF7 with the same arm I think. I sometimes had to wrap the arm with Teflon tape to dampen on some carts and used the herbie's mat as Chayro said.

I would change Vta on arm if to bright.( just mentioning in case).

BTW, I did not like the Goldring Eroica but everyone is different and our systems are different. Get out and listen if possible to find what you enjoy.

I

There is a 0% chance I'd spend $600+ on a cartridge for that table. But that's just me.

It makes little sense to invest in a more expensive cartridge for a table with an entry level arm.

Save your money and buy a better table/tonearm.

Thank you all for your help. I bought this TT used one year ago and I used it A LOT without ever being particularly impressed by its sound. The thing is that there's no comparison btw the Cd player (that I'm very pleased with) and the TT. The cd player wins. And that's not what I want. I know that my TT is what it is, and I do want to upgrade one day. But I can't now. So, I'll go with Herbie's mat, which I just ordered. I'll look for the cones too (silly question: do I need to install them?). I was also thinking about getting a wall shelf rack. It seems like the most popular and budget shelf here on audiogon is the Target, but both Needledoctor and Music direct say that there are problems with availability. The only one I can find is the Apollo but it's made of glass and I have read somewhere that's not ideal. Any suggestion? As for the cartridge, I'd like to try something different from the Goldring and I thought the MMF 5 was good enough to support nice cartridges. Does it make sense to think of a $600 cartridge as an investment? I would already have a nice cartridge to start with whenever I decided to get a better table. Or not?

Thank you again,
Fra