Low vs. High Output MC Cartridges

Dear Marakanetz, You wrote, "One more important point:
Low-outs are less sensible to RFI or EMI or turntable motor noise. The tolerance in phono preamps to EMI or RFI may also come onto the game with low-out MC, but the implementation of proper EMI or RFI tolerance on the circuit board isn't rocket science nowadays."

There seems to be an internal contradiction. Also, I cannot imagine why a LOMC cartridge would have be "less sensible" to RFI, EMI, turntable motor noise than its HOMC counter-part. Can you explain further? More phono gain is required for LOMC vs HOMC. Any noise from any source upstream from the volume control will therefore be amplified more when using an LOMC vs HOMC. Granted, you may have in mind other factors, but what are those?

To the OP, I have always found that LOMCs are as a class superior to HOMCs purely as regards fidelity. In fact, I prefer highest quality MM and MI cartridges over HOMC cartridges, again, as a class. But this is just one opinion.

"A moving inductive coil travels accross the constant magnetic field by Faradey's law and getting a voltage drop between its first and last coil transferred through the pick-up arm wiring harness to your phono preamp... LOMCs have substantially less coils and certainly less inductance."

I'm in complete agreement. Then, "LOMCs have substantially less coils and certainly less inductance. The cartrige is more likely become a microphone having larger number of coils and sensible to weaker magnetic fields such as EMI." Here is where I am lost. It would seem to me that EMI fields in the vicinity of a LOMC cartridge would be less likely to induce a spurious signal in the tiny coil than in the larger number of turns of wire in the coil of an HOMC.

Frogman, If you re-read my statement, note that in all cases I used the qualifier "as a class". This is to warn the reader that I mean "in general", i.e., I did not mean for what I wrote to be taken as a hard and fast rule. In other words, I was saying, as you said, be careful about generalizations. Of course, I have not heard every HOMC ever made or every LOMC either. So it is entirely possible that a single given HOMC (apparently the Clearaudio is one, in your opinion) could be competitive with the other best cartridges in the world of any and all types. But I spent about 15 years playing with several so-called "good" HOMC cartridges (Sumiko, Benz and Transfig brands) in my system, and in my system, in my opinion, they suck compared to a few very good LOMC cartridges and a few very good MM and MI cartridges that came later. OK? To be more specific, they lacked "sparkle", life, any sense of verisimilitude.

Marakanetz, In your very last post, you say exactly what I say. So I am guessing that you just accidentally misspoke in your first and second posts regarding susceptibility to EMI. Cool.

Dear Frogman, I am too lazy to re-read all the posts to find out who it was that praised the Clearaudio HOMC. Someone did, and I meant to cast no aspersions on that person's opinion. Anyway, sorry for sounding a bit strident. There is no rule to go by, as you and others have said, but I always considered that the "High" in HOMC begins at about 1mV output, and up from there. Which means that MCs in the 0.6 to 1.0mV output range are kind of in limbo. Then too, ZYX makes the UNIverse in 0.24 and 0.48mV output versions; what do you call the latter? It has higher output than its congener but hardly qualifies as "HO". On the other hand, the scuttlebutt is that the LO one is better.

My major point is that (again, as a class), I like the best of the MM and MI cartridges I have auditioned much better than the best of the HOMCs I have lived with for years. So my rank order is: LOMC=MI~MM>HOMC, or something like that. Surely, LOMCs sound "different" from the best MM and MI cartridges, but not always better.