i have purchased a few of Raul's highly recommended MM gems (thanks Raul) and found that they were absolutely wonderful for the dollars. vintage $200-$500 MM's that outperformed 10x as costly MC's. and even did things which were competitive with even higher level MC's. and they were typically very listenable and musical.
for a few years i had multiple tt's and arms and a phono stage which accomodated MM's and MC's. i had these various cartridges side by side, and the best MC's were able to consistently resolve detail and texture which sounded indistinct on the MM's. and ultimately this advantage (albiet at a much higher cost) did allow for a higher musical experience. for the best moving coil a lower noise phono stage is required, more accurate set-up is needed.
at this point i still own a few nice MM's but now only have 1 tt and 2 arms, one for a mono MC and one for a stereo MC.
MM's are excellent but for ultimate performance it's MC.
i know likely since i bought my last MM there are still others which have been found to be even better. maybe they can be equal or better than the best MC's; or maybe they are just different. but i've moved on from that question for myself.
for a few years i had multiple tt's and arms and a phono stage which accomodated MM's and MC's. i had these various cartridges side by side, and the best MC's were able to consistently resolve detail and texture which sounded indistinct on the MM's. and ultimately this advantage (albiet at a much higher cost) did allow for a higher musical experience. for the best moving coil a lower noise phono stage is required, more accurate set-up is needed.
at this point i still own a few nice MM's but now only have 1 tt and 2 arms, one for a mono MC and one for a stereo MC.
MM's are excellent but for ultimate performance it's MC.
i know likely since i bought my last MM there are still others which have been found to be even better. maybe they can be equal or better than the best MC's; or maybe they are just different. but i've moved on from that question for myself.