Best MM for the money or?


Are there any MM cartridges out there that rival the elite MC cartridges? I have in storage a VTL Ultimate with a MC stage but with my Monster Genesis 2000 cartridge(.02mv) I can only take the volume up to 12 o'clock before the back round noise is noticable. Should i go to maybe a .o4mv cartridge,would that solve the problem? Or should I just go to a MM cartridge and be happy with that. The VTL is magical with the CD stage which is why I never sold it and it meshes well with the Manley Tube amps I have in storage too.
qdrone

Showing 1 response by tubeo

I would consider a Moving Coil Transformer . I use an Ultimate [heavily modified ] with a Quicksilver [+23dB] or a homemade - Jensen JT-44K-DX based [+20dB] - MC Transformer into the MM Phono Input of the Ultimate . Both are rather inexpensive especially if you are handy and do your own construction . Do a Search of Audio 10 for construction details .

Background noise will be low enough for your Monster Genesis 2000 cartridge . A very fine sounding cartridge indeed . You could also set your MC Input to 47k and run a lower gain Transformer [+15dB?] . IMHO almost all Low Output MC Cartridges in general sound better than any MM Cartridge I have heard .