Direction on my next upgrade

MM cartridge is excellent for all kind of music and if you really want true reproduction without coloration then you have to buy an MM cartridge, but not that modern crap, you need a classic MM cartridge from the golden age, with advanced stylus profile on it, and tons of fans worldwide, I mean people who really understand what is a good MM cartridge (not what reviewers telling them these days). The problem with modern MM is very simple: manufacturers are not competing with each other to make the best sounding MM anymore, vinyl is not the main format and they can sell an average MC for much higher prices (almost 10 times higher price than MM) and this is where they are using exotic materials sometimes to justify the cost.

Read this article from the archive of the TAS magazine and I hope it will help you to understand why MM is better. See which MM cartridge has been using by professionals for disk mastering, see which one sound like master tape. Check what is Stanton/Pickering’s Stereohedron stylus tip:

"Stereohedron stylus can be used for 1000 hrs. We recommend checking your stylus every 250 hrs. Like its cousin, the Quadrahedral, the STEREOHEDRON stylus is shaped to provide an enlarged area of record groove contact, while providing the ability to accurately trace the high frequency, the level modulations found on today’s records, thus, the Stereohedron stylus provides superior performance which low stylus wear and low record wear for your stereo records. This cartridge will perform superbly not only with stereo, but with four-channel matrix derived systems (SQ, QS, etc). "


...And buy yourself a NOS (New Old Stock) Pickering XSV/4000 cartridge for $750, you will not find anything better than this spending money on MC and then on re-tipping of MC. I collect all top Pickering and Stanton models of MM cartridges and I have some of the best LOMC too. Let me tell you that Stanton 981 or SC100 WOS is the best you can get for the money and Pickering XSV/4000 or XSV/5000 are amazing.

As far as i know, chronologically, Pickering XUV/4500Q with Quadrahedron stylus for CD-4 records was the predecessor of the Stereohedron series. The first Stereohedron series was the XSV/3000 model. Reading an old review I noticed that Stereohedron was preferable over Quadrahedron for stereo records. In other words even XSV/3000 was better than XUV/4500Q. The next cartridge from Pickering surpassed them all! It was an improved XSV/4000 Stereohedron series with lower stylus tip mass, higher compliance and wider frequency response. The Stereohedron stylus is a modified stereo version of the Quadrahedron stylus. The XSV/4000 plays all stereo and mono records with consummate ease, which certainly speaks well for the Stereohedron stylus principle. The Stereohedron has a large bearing surface which is distributed over a large portion of the modulated groove, and at the stated optimum tracking force of 1.2 grams, the actual force per unit area is, of course, much less and should significantly contribute to the longevity of recordings.

I really love Pickering and Stanton top models, but there are some other great MM or MI on the market, it will take too much time to post about all of them again. Read and search audiogon. Send me direct message if you need help.


P.S. Once you get an MC you’re hooked, when the stylus is worn you can’t replace it yourself, you must send your MC to the manufacturer or to someone else. The manufacturer will charge over 60% of the full retail price again.

If you want to hear something very different you don’t have to change from one cartridge to another with the same manufacturer, you can always try something very different (another cartridge like MM versus MC). User replaceable stylus is great option (available only for MM/MI). 

Cartridge is the key to a perfect sound on any turntable. Cartridges are copatible if you're not switching from superheavy tonearm to a lightweight tonearm. All modern tonearms are mostly mid mass and nearly all modern cartridges are mid compliance. No matter what turntable, you need a decent cartridge anyway. And a great cartridge is NOT the most expensive one. 

Chakster, that article is from 1994. I think you need to catch your breath, relax, get stoned and listen to music for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Modern moving coil’s moving systems have much lower effective mass than back then. That old high end peak is long gone. Phono amps have also made great strides. The very best cartridges are MC.

@mijostyn
I have many LOMC cartridges and many different phono stages and SUTs and Headamps in my studio, so I am able to compare everything myself. The golden age of analog is NOT today, it was in the 80’s on its peak (for cartridges, turntables, reel to reel, speakers ). Actually for the speakers it happened earlier.

I owned two 681EEs and the Charisma run circles around them. It also tracks better by a wide margin. So Chakster, saying modern MM cartridges can not compete with old ones is patently wrong.

681EE is not even close to the best Stanton cartridges, because the stylus tip is Elliptical, the best Stanton/Pickering are all have Stereohedron and Stereohedron mkII diamonds (the greatest profiles in the history). Cartridge in the TAS article is 881s (Stereohedron) is not the top model, there are also Technics 100c mk4 and Audio-Technics AT-ML170 and those two might be better than Stanton 881s for someone (personal preferences).

I hope you can buy this new TOP WING to tell us how good it is, the price is just about $12500 for this MI, i’m sure you will like it. Especially when they will charge crazy amount for re-tip.

I would be willing to bet that there is no vintage MM cartridge that can compete with the Charisma never mind Grado and Soundsmith. They just did not have the materials science then that we do now.

You never tried the best vintage MM or MI, let’s face it first.
They had better materials not even available today for cartridge manufacturers like Beryllium for example, I just don’t want to repeat it all over again.

But having all those "ultra nano" materials today why only a few manufacturers can make a decent sounding tubes ? Tube are much simpler design than a phono cartridge, but many people prefer NOS from the 40's/50's than brand new tubes. 

Just compare the size of the Charisma’s diamond to that of the 681EE. It is easily 1/4 the size. The 681EE cantilever is a baseball bat in comparison.

Why are you refering to 681EE, compare your cartridge to 981 or SC-100 WOS and you will hear the most involving sound ever.

681EEE is entry level model, Stanton made so many models, some of them are cheap crap with conical styli.

Now maybe vintage cartridges are better than modern ones at the same price point, I can’t say.

Exactly
I want to remind you that OP asked for an "MM in the $500-$750 range " !
Not $2000

But, the Charisma runs in another universe. It also costs $2000.00 which brings another subject to mind. If you can make a cartridge with the same cantilever and diamond as a $16,000 cartridge for $2000.00 why does that cartridge cost so much??

I have no idea, got too many vintage MM cartridges with Boron Pipe cantilevers, Sapphire or Ruby, Titanium or Ceramic cantilevers. Some of them are $700, some of them are $3000 today.

IMHO the best MC cartridge you can buy is the Ortofon Windfeld Ti price considered. Add a Clearaudio Charisma and you have the best of both worlds.

I have an Ortofon MC 2000 new in the box, very special LOMC cartridge.
The Clear Audio is buying cartridge generators from Audio-Technica. I already have the best Audio-Technica MM ever made (the AT-ML180 PC-OCC with Gold-Plated Beryllium cantilever, later replaced with Gold-Plated Boron cantilever).

MM cartridges designed way back and the ClearAudio is nothing in this world of the best MM.

I gave you the link to $12500 Coreless-flux modern Ultra High-End MI cartridge from the Japanese brand Top Wing, do you know this brand? Recommended by Jonathan Carr a few years ago on audiogon. The engineer of the Top Wing used to work for the Grace back in the days. The Grace cartridges are amazing (F14 and LEVEL II series).

Fluance RT85 with Ortofon Blue

@cpdkee

The Ortofon BLUE is the weakest part in your system.
Everything starts from the cartridge in analog setup, this cartridge is too bad, the stylus tip is elliptical, this is very close to the Red (the cheapest model).

I am going to upgrade the Rogue and enjoy for a while. Looks like speakers or a better integrated will be the future debate.

Why do you think your MM phono stage is not good ?

All you have to do is to change a cartridge, nothing else in your system.
This is where you can get the biggest upgrade for the lowest possible cost. You can’t buy a phono stage for $500-700 but you can buy superb cartridge for $500-700.

If you will start from the phono stage you will not get there, just a waste of money until you don’t have a proper cartridge with advanced stylus profile and better cantilever. Read about stylus profile here.

Speakers - yes, very important, but even with the best speakers you need a great cartridge first, because the signal path starts from the vinyl groove and only a stylus can pick up the signal right.

You can completely change the whole sound of your analog system spending $500-700 on a cartridge. There is no other component in analog chain that will give you this for the same amount.

And i want to remind you that a life span of your elliptical stylus is pretty short and soon you will have to change it anyway and the price just for the stylus will be high. You’d better invest in a cartridge with the greatest profile like Shibata, LineContact, MicroLine, Stereohedron, MicroRidge that you can use for a much longer time.