Can someone explain "Moving Iron" vs."Moving Coil"


I recently got back into Vinyl, and I bought a Sota Sapphire, with an Alphason arm and a Grado cartridge. I asked the previous owner if it was a moving magnet or moving coil cartridge - he told me it was a moving iron. I've got a Classe DR6 preamp - do I select MM or MC on the back of the pre ? I started off with MM and I don't seem to getting sufficient gain, I don't want to switch to MC, as I'm afraid the output of the Grado might be way too high for the MC phono stage. Am I being paranoid, or should I just go ahead and flip the switch to MC and ride the results? Thanks.
dbamac

Showing 2 responses by bld63

The Grado wood body cartridges are available in both high and low outputs (4.5 & .5 I think). Grado's phono pre which I assume was designed to match these cartridges has a choice of either 45 or 62db of gain. Your cartridge could be a low output model. Try both settings on your preamp and go with the one that sounds best.
Should have done some research before my previous post. The current models have outputs of 5mv & .5mv, the gain on the phono amp is 40 or 56 db.