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MC for Low Mass Tonearm

With my table's low mass tonearm I am sad to see only Ortefon and Sumiko MC carts available.  Please offer suggestions for other carts/brands that might work with an 8.5gm arm.  <$3000.00 budget

My System:
Pro-ject RPM Table / EVO Carbon 10 inch arm  8.5 gm mass and very rigid

Into all Aric Audio front-end:  the 'Transend MM phono pre' (12ax7 and 47ohm), '6SN7 Linestage Preamp' and 'Transcend Push-pull' amp into ZU Soul Supreme.

My current carts are MM and MI, Grace F9e and Soundsmith The Voice. Both are hi-compliance (+22cu).

Will I be able to best those with a $3k Moving Coil cartridge?  The Voice is really nice! 

I'll know that I need to purchase an SUT.

Bent

michaellent

Showing 1 response by clio09

clio09
3,363 posts
 

I agree with what @lewm says. I have an Grace F9e with the original stylus and the Soundsmith Ruby upgraded stylus, also an original F9e Ruby. The Soundsmith stylus is the better of the 3. I also have a Soundsmith Carmen II and the F9e/Soundsmith cartridge outperforms that one as well.

If you want to stick your neck out there a bit, a friend of mine just bought a mint B&O MMC-1 with the Soundsmith adapter, and I own the MMC-2. These cartridges stack up quite well against MC cartridges and work well with low mass arms.

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