Moving from MM to MC

I have a Shure M97x cart and it’s been fantastic

If this cartridge is fantastic for you then you will be blown away by a proper MM/MI cartridges you can still try for relatively low price. Few years ago a friend of mine asked for a cartridge, he came to my house with his Shure M97x, his own turntable is Technics SL1210mkII. He wouldn’t pay too much, so the competitive cartridge was Ortofon M20FL Super (under $350 normally). On the same turntable and on the same tonearm the Ortofon M20FL Super (nude FineLine stylus) was much better than Shure. Same Ortofon M20FL Super was praised by many experienced audiogon users in the beggining of Raul’s thread regarding MM vs. MC and that’s why i adviced his to try this first. I believe they can be tracked down for $250-350 (i still have NOS stylus).

Denon DL-103 is a joke, but it’s very popular because it’s very cheap. It’s funny, but people who’s buyin them cheap in stock condition then investing up to $500-700 more to replace a stock aluminum cantilever and conical tip, also to replace the plastic body. They are happy after everything has been replaced and upgraded, but it’s no longer a Denon stock sound, and it’s no longer a cheap affordable cartridge.

So you tell me why do you need a low complianbce DL-103 with conical tip when you can buy Denon DL-S1 or maybe Denon DL-1000 for example? Remember that your tonearm was designed for MM cartridges and definitely not for the low compliance cartridges of any type, the DL-103 designed for super heavy high mass tonearms. 

In my opinion you want to try the LOMC whithout even realised the potential of MM cartridges. But no problem, we’re always looking for something new and different. If your budget is $300 you’d better forget about LOMC (imo), but if you have $1500-2000 you can try to find some nice LOMC.

In my opinion you want to try the LOMC whithout even realised the potential of MM cartridges. But no problem, we're always looking for something new and different. If your budget is $300 you'd better forget about LOMC (imo), but if you have $1500-2000 you can try to find some nice LOMC.

Point taken. So, in order to realize the true benefit of MC, much more needs to be spent on the cart to ensure adequate quality? And if this is not possible may not be worth the time and money on a lower-end set-up.
My issue is that I do not have a lot of money to play with but I do want to fool around with MC. Tough pill to swallow.

Though the DL-103 is a good mc cartridge, it is a mismatch for your system.  The output is too low to properly match with the phono input in your preamp.  Denon makes a couple of very good performing mc cartridges that would have similar output as your Shure cart and will provide much better performance.  The Denon DL-110 comes to mind, but there are other brands that produce high output moving coil (HOMC) cartridges.  

The output is too low to properly match with the phono input in your preamp.

That’s why if I got the DL 103 I would get a proper phono preamp to deal with this. (This one has selectable impedance for LOMC and HOMC 20 ohm and 100 ohm respectively. I assume this would solve that problem?

https://www.phonopreamps.com/TC-760LCpp.html
https://www.phonopreamps.com/images/6LCSR.jpg

Point taken. So, in order to realize the true benefit of MC, much more needs to be spent on the cart to ensure adequate quality? And if this is not possible may not be worth the time and money on a lower-end set-up.
My issue is that I do not have a lot of money to play with but I do want to fool around with MC. Tough pill to swallow.

You have to read Raul’s thread , so much information about MM vs. MC. In my opinion it is much more important to have a proper MM/MI on hands, those MM/MI cartridges are always cheaper than LOMC cartridges, but the quality of the selected (very best) MM/MI is outstanding for the money. It is not for those who’s afraid to buy vintage (lightly used or NOS) cartridges from the 70s/80s. They are the best in its class, Moving Magnet peak was at that time, not now. I did everything wrong myself some year ago, so my advice is not to buy cheap MC or even very expensive MC if you don’t have a decent MM cartridge. My curiosity was so high 4-5 years ago than i bought a very expensive new LOMC (i was brainwashed by the common statment that MC are always better than MM), later on i have discovered so many amazing MM cartridges (better than my ex super expensive $3k LOMC). The quest with the right phono stage for the LOMS is also very difficult and expensive. But it’s all a part of the hobby.

Start with the right MM or MI, something that’s have been approved in our community, the Ortofon M20FL Super is one of them and actually still very cheap ($250-350 depends on condition), if you prepared to spend $500-800 there must be a much better MM cartridges, everyone knows that my love is AT-ML170 and Victor X-1II for example. You need a mid compliance cartridges for your Technics tonearm, definitely not low compliance carts.

About the DENON:
There was an MM alternative to the DL-103 - another broadcast cartridge designed for NHK radiostation in the same era! It's Denon DL-107 with conical tip. This is also Denon stock sound, but you don’t have to worry about expensive SUT or MC phono stage with high gain. The DL-107 is Moving Magnet alternative to the DL-103 LOMC. On the DL-107 the replacement stylus is screwed to the cartridge like on Signet or ADC TRX carts - this is great (i have a few NOS styli).