Among a slew of cartridges my long time favorite has been a SoundSmith Hyperion, but mine is low output and I use an SUT that cost as much as it did. Not to mention two sets of interconnects. I don't think that is what you want. I also often turn to the Ortofon 2M cartridges for older acoustic jazz as they have the synergy I am looking for, particularly their 2M Mono SE which is available but maybe out of the EU only. I prefer the sound and balance of it on old jazz records to even a much more expensive Myajima Zero.
High Performance Moving Iron Cartridge Candidates?
I have decided to simplify my analog set up a bit. removed the fussy cartridges and SUT's, and am down to one external phono stage, and the internal one in my Trinov preamp.
The Trinov preamp is MM only, and I don;t want to use a step up or headamp with it. So that means high output moving coil or a MM type cartridge.
I read on these boards that a MI cartridge can have lower moving mass than a moving coil I would like to experiment.
What are the viable candidates these days? I imagine most vintage ones do not have OEM styli available still. The Soundsmith ones are interesting, but get very spendy. This is meant to be a casual cartridge for me, but I will spend some money on it. Just not Air Tight or Koetsu money.
What are other choices? Not typically fond of Grado I heard in the past. Otherwise I think Nagaoka is the only other one I know of?