Best MM?

orpheus105,655 posts

10-27-2018 1:20pm
There are some marvelous cartridges in the 1K price range;




https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/music-maker-ii-cartridge


http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/mmaker/mmaker.html

Hmmmm...interesting thing about that 6 Moons review. The author says this:

"Cartridge man Leonard Gregory doesn’t consider the Rega arms to be suitable for the Music Maker. In general, I suspect it’s happiest with a really good unipivot ....."

Hadcock is a unipivot. Both the latter version of the arm and MM cart are developed Len Gregory (the CartridgeMan) and they are commonly paired together and considered a very synergistic match.

The 6 Moons reviewer used the Hadcock in his almost over-the-top praise of the MM cart.

I own the Hadcock 242 arm and listened extensively with the MM cart. Quite contrary to the above and popular wisdom (that the springy MM cart does best with light unipivots) I MUCH prefer it on my Rega and OL arms. Maybe I’m just a fan of fixed bearing over unipivot? Or maybe I just didn’t nail the setup with the Hadcock?

I doubt it’s the latter since I futzed with it quite a bit , encouraged by all the positive reports on the pairing. But I could never achieve the sublime synergy I so often read about.

Like in many things audio......go figya!

Fourwnds, sometime you have to go against the wind; such is the case with Grado and this forum.


"More and more though I’m less interested in scratching that curiosity itch, maybe I’n gettin closer to finding my sound, or tired of blowing money, I don’t know."


Fourwnds, I would say all of the above. Although I would try a lot of things if it began raining money in my listening room, I don't expect that to happen.

On the serious side, I'm just enjoying my record collection immensely without thinking about anything other than how good the music sounds, and that's what I say to you;


Enjoy the music.

My question was exploratory, I have no intention to replace the Goldring for as long as I hear improvements in sound whenever I make changes somewhere else in the chain. Until the time comes to replace the stylus. Then I might try different cartridge and I might not.
The entire system must be in balance and tuned to one's liking. Besides, higher resolution cartridge will require better phono stage which in turn must blend in well with the rest.
Before choosing the Goldring I was thinking about Grado reference but decided to go with the former mostly because Nottingham cartridges, no longer made I understand, were customized Goldring, but also because Goldring 1042 seemed popular in the UK. I also read that Grado can be foggy. I like Grado headphone sound, but yes it is somewhat foggy. My turntable is on a warmer side, so are the speakers. I think, the Goldring fits right in, it is too on the warm side of neutral but not much and is quite dynamic and engaging, like Nottingham Spacedeck turntable.

Clearaudio maestro better than 2m black. Clearaudio also has new mm called Charisma at arouns$2000. Suppose to be very good, offers best attributes of mm and mc. I think this is now the top mm on the market. 

Modern MM cartridges for $2000 indicates how much modern manufacturers (ClearAudio) would like to earn on the sales by using cartridge generator made by Audio-Technica.

In fact, for a brand new MM, $2k is ridiculous price as the MM cartridges always were much cheaper than MC. And it should be cheaper, it’s different technology. Only in this crazy world where LOMC cost up to $15k the $2k MM looks cheaper, lol . 

It would be nice to explain in details which vintage MM/MI were beaten by that modern MM $2k cartridges ? I want to know the reference in MM category for the users of modern MM stuff.

My reference is Audio-Technica AT-ML180, Stanton SC-100 WOS, Glanz MFG-61, Victor X-1II, Grace LEVEL II BR/MR and Pioneer PC-1000 mkII. In my opinion these cartridges are unbeatable by any modern MM and much more reasonable priced on the used market. All these are highly competitive with $5k modern LOMC. in my opinion.

Again, in my opinion the real gems are on the vintage market.