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Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

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RE: CartridgeCompatibility

Posted by flood2 on January 11, 2017 at 20:01:03:
The interactions between the components are what make recommendations so difficult! Everyone will be basing the opinions on what they have experienced.
FWIW, I was brought up on a Stanton 681EE which is MI. I know exactly what you mean. Even now, on original jazz recordings from the 50s and 60s, the 681 makes some very pleasing noises. However, after trying out many different cartridges, my favourite would have to be the low impedance Stanton MMs for neutrality and technical performance.
Unfortunately these models are long gone and in the latter years, Stanton quality was so bad that NOS styli are best left on the shelf unless you are really desperate (or very lucky!)

In theory, the transducer principle (MI, MM, MC) should have no influence on the tonal balance of the reproduced signal. If you were to hear my digital transcriptions (which are equalised to a reference white noise response), I would doubt that you could consistently and reliably discern what the cartridge type was except by luck.

However, it is the differences in materials used, mechanical resonances, non-linearities etc etc which colour the sound in different ways. The higher the inductance of the coils, the more likely you are going to have more audible colourations coming through.
In a sense it's "what you get used to". Also, it depends on what your preferences are.
If you were to say to me that a particular cartridge sounded too much like CD, rather than be put off, I would be likely to check it out simply because I am after neutrality and fidelity. Totally the opposite to you I guess, but for me, digital is the reference and the record shouldn't sound any different....that is unless you really WANT it to! In which case, it comes down to what flavour you like!