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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 sean

sean
6,231 posts
 
Most Grado's are not very "hot" in terms of output. They are measurably higher in output than most MC's but lower than many MM's. If you use the MC input, you will probably end up over-driving the preamp, causing noticeable distortion. This would become more apparent on records that are higher in output or during high amplitude peaks.

Out of curiosity, do you know what model Grado you have and what the gain of the phono stage on your DR6 is rated at? Sean
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sean
6,231 posts
 
Good info Bld. I didn't know that they offered two different output levels for their cartridges. 4.5 mv would be plenty for most any MM phono stage. The .5 versions could be used with MC inputs, but one might want to check the loading. Some MC stages use different loading characteristics than their MM counterparts.

For some reason, i was thinking that Grado's weren't as low as .5 but not as high as 4.5 mv output. Dropping somewhere in the middle there would put someone in a bind in terms of having "almost" enough gain on the MM stage while having too much output for an MC stage. Sean
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