Best MM?

OP, my phono pre is a Manley Chinook, got some NOS Amperex 6922s in it.

Chakster, thanks for the documentary on Grado Labs; their philosophy of quality, and consistently delivering a product their customers appreciate is one of the reasons I buy their cartridges.

Grado is called "the poor man's Koetsu" for a reason; it's as close as a poor man can get to a Koetsu. I heard a middle of the line Koetsu, and when my budget allows, I'll get one; however, in the meantime, I'm quite satisfied with the Grado Master 2.

Although I moved up from the Platinum, to the Sonata, and now I have the Master, I don't recommend Grado on this forum because it's not a Rock cartridge, and that's what most here seem to prefer.

In the beginning, I relied on this forum, and I was never satisfied; that's why I say each person has to make his own discovery in regard to the best cartridge for him.


Enjoy the music.

@orpheus10 I never tried a Koetsu, i’ve heard that old Koetsu is terrible cartridge in term of buid quality and Garrott Brothers in Australia fixed many of them back in the days.

I’ve been using Grado for professional needs for decades on Technics turntable and tonearms. In High-End system only Joseph Grado Signature XTZ was close to my favorite carts.

Rock is not my music, but Jazz, Funk and Soul is my choice. However, i don’t believe a cartridge is made for certain genre of music.

My point is that there are many cartridges on the market, much more than current mafunacturers can offer, especially the MM/MI. So it’s not necessary to stick to the modern MM/MI from well known 5 manufacturers, there are many more amazing cartridges from the past (from the golden age of analog media).

After a well regarded Audio Technica cartridge seemed skreechy in my system, a local Audio Salon sales dude I’ve known for years recommended a Sumiko Pearl, which at that time was their premier MM item...125 bucks...I like it enough that I’ve re-tipped it once...a great sounding cartridge for silly small money, doing great work on my Akito festooned Basik table.

Thanks for all the advice! 2M Black is what you are all saying, ridiculously good... even after only 2 hours of listening.

I started this process because my Lyra Delos was either broken or worn out or something. Turned out it was just dirt on the cantilever so the dealer is sending it back to me, good as half-new. It's going to be an interesting comparison because while I expect the Lyra to resolve way better, there's something about both of the MMs that I've listened to so far that's missing from the Lyra.