Recommendations for an MC cart on Audiogon

Why an MC? Do you already have a decent MM or MI?  

Chakster, I don’t but from what I’ve read & understood here I thought MC was the better way to step into audiophiledom once I’m in this price range. It also seemed what I was reading was that most MM at this level have more of a warm feel & I prefer just a tad bit bright. But, I always welcome learning new info.

Well, this is not true. Actually is the other way around. If you budget is that low then MI or MM is a much better route for you. When you load some of the MM cartridge at 100k Ohm (instead of 47k Ohm) you will get what you like. The best MM or IM/MI cartridges we're talking about here comes with the best cantilever/stylus combinations to extract what's on the record. Each time you can simply change the stylus in 5 seconds my yourself, you don't need a vendor and extra expenses to do it like in case with the MC.  

- If you would like to learn more as you said then here is a links for you, very interesting read!  

- You can also watch SoundSmith lecture, just find a part when he's talking about MI versus MC. Peter repair thousands of cartridges, i think we can trust his opinion.  

- And finnally this audiogon thread. 

I am not advocate of all MM or MI cartridges, but we already discovered some amazing examples which is a better choice with your budged than any modern MC at this price. Maybe you don't know what you're missing. Taking in count how critical is phono stage and cables when it comes to MC at the end you may not have an appropriate gear even to hande MC. Also an awful re-tipping process each time the cartridge is worn (or damaged like the one you already bought). 

 

@mechans How do you know "it's superb" if you only have had one MC cartridge and this particular MC is not even a low output ?  

We do believe that everything we're buying is superb until this opinion is crashed by something much much better, so comparison of the different cartridges is very important for analog lovers. Experience is the key. 

So the same reason i can blame professional reviewers, because they never even tried some rare vintage MM cartridges and always raving about inferior modern MC cartridges for some reason. But used market is an amazing option for us (buyers) to try whatever we want to try, sometimes it's time machine in action. I have no reason to stick to the modern production only, why should we ?   

Of course the dealers will recommend you an MC cartridges, because they know nothing about rare MM cartridges and what they do is just sell what is available for the dealers from the manufacturers today. What's the point to ask a dealer ??? You're missing a world of amazing cartridges if you stick to the dealer of the modern high-end. 

If you would like to choose between an Ortofon and Dynavector go for the Dynavector, but read this thread about some special models from the past (they are often available NOS for decent price under $500)    

When you bought the Sumiko cartridge seller’s feedback does not help much, you have received defective cartridge and not even get a quick refund?

When you see many feedbacks you’re dealing with professional sellers. Even those cheaters who sells grey market product with fake serial numbers have all positive feedbacks.

The low feedback score does not mean something bad, it means that the seller is not a professional seller/dealer, but most likely an audiophile like all of us.

Only Negative feedback is the alert, but some buyers are dishonest too, especially on ebay. It’s better to check why negative feedback left.

US Audio Mart and UK Audio Mart are great sources! They do not charge for listing or even for sales. It’s free. I'm happy to list my spare cartridges on UKaudioMart.com Normally the best prices are there! Ebay charge sales fee, audiogon charge listing fee (which is crazy) even if the item is unsold they do charge listing fee.

@lewm

Invictus, Your and Chakster’s zeal for MM cartridges over all else is in my opinion just as misplaced as is Raul’s recent conversion to the religion of the moving coil cartridge. Your blanket statement that any cheap MM can outperform any high-end moving coil cartridge is at least a little exaggerated, don’t you think? In this hobby, it’s always a good idea to keep an open mind. Anyway that’s my own opinion.

I’m trying to be specific with a choice of MM for a person who is a begginer as we can see by threads started by him. I really think that the advantages of the MM is obvious, not only speclacular sound quality (when it comes to Stanton/Pickering, Grace, Victor, Audio-Technica...), but more user friendly (stylus replacement for example) with a choice of the phono stage.

My favorite LOMC is currently Fidelity-Research FR-7fz which is very limited in choice of tonearm, and Ortofon MC2000 which is too complicated in choice of preamp. Both are extremely rare cartridges. I have some more LOMC which i like (so i think i’m open minded enough), one of them is Fidelity-Research PMC-3, Argent low outoput and even some high output Argent MC cartridges made in the 80’s by Excel Sound much better than Excel Sound’s current Hanna for example. Got the mega rare Miyabi waiting my audition here. I enjoyed my old AT ART-2000 and i’m sure the ART-9 must be great too.

But once a begginer will damage them the repair is almost impossible or too expensive. The best MC for a begginer is the one which can be factory repaired and retipped for reasonable price (not as high as the new cartridge). Most of the cartridge can be damaged during mounting process if a person is a begginer. Lyra cartridges like some VdH and Dynavectors has unprotected cantilever in front of it, which is very easy to damage (i would never buy such cartridge)!

Practically the MC cartridges are very very bad (imo) to start with. Miyajima was one of the manufacturer who offered reasonably priced re-tipping service and some of their models are not expensive (especially used). I’ve managed to damage one very very expensive MC and it was the worst experience in my "audio life" and a very big loss (financially). Also i think people brainwashed by reviewers that MC are better, some of them are really good, but we must be very specific in choice of MC and an appropriate phono stage or sut for them. At the OPs price range i would look for vintage MC or (much better) vintage MM or MI. Anyway i’m sure he will realize it later on.

Stylus replacement even for vintage MM or MI is amazing opportunity to use the cartridge forever.

I am not trying to blame the OP or Lyra. Anyway, some people ignoring my advices and buyin some cr*p because more people will tell them this cr*p is really good. Some people just want to justify their purchase and all they need is 10 more people to say: "yeah this is really good choice". I don’t understand this logic, because the most popular cartridges are not good, one example is Denon DL-103, when the begginer search for MC he will find millions of comment how good and musical this cartridge, but in reality there are many more truly amazing cartridges for the same price, most of them are vintage MM.