MM to MC back to MM

I have gone back to MM because I have decided that not only MM's are better for now,but(wait for it) so are conical styli.Firstly as part of an exchange with the ex-reviewer Martin Colloms he mentioned the fact that MC's pass a lot of high frequency artefacts that MM's filter out naturally. I noticed that with the Ortofon VMS 20 a spherical tip replacement stylus sounded better than the original elliptical.Then at VA I found this relating to an old Fulton Musical Industries cartridge.
"Fulton elected to use a spherical tip because they believe that both elliptical and Shibata shape styli are subject to forces that twist them as they pass over modulated groove walls. Further, this twisting motion of the stylus is transmitted down the cantilever and is reproduced as distortion by the phono cartridge. There is much less extraneous torquing of the cantilever by its stylus with a conical tip. At 5kHz Fulton engineers have measured three times the distortion with elliptical and Shibata styli than with a conical. Accordingly, the tendency of an elliptical or Shibata stylus to twist or torque indicates that the nuances of music are lost and, at the same time, distortion in the critical 2 to 9 kHz frequency range is added. A conical tip apparently sidesteps this problem." I also think Moving-Iron can be superior to both MM and MC.The Ortofon is a MI.

Well I can.I posted a while back in the Lenco thread,about how I replaced a Denon 103 MC with an Ortofon VMS 20 Mk11 E MI and how I thought the Ortofon was better. Because when I dialled in the anti-skate it actually made the music right unlike the Denon where I was always looking for compromises or using no anti-skate at all.I found using a conical tip improved things still further.A guy on VA called Jeff Medwin says he won't let an art-stylus in his house.Why? there is 3 times the distortion from elliticals or shibata types.We have got lost!

In reply to Ctm I was running a Denon 103 on a Lenco idler and changed directly over to the Ortofon VMS 20 without any other system changes.My initial comparison and impressions were as close and consistent as you may be for now.I believe the Ortofon to be a more controlled cartridge than the Denon.The Denon's conical tip could not disguise the lack of definition in the lower frequencies due I think to the fuzziness inherent in MC's.I was also running a Linn Asak(Vital stylus) on another table at this time.This is the Supex SDX 1000 in Linn clothing a pretty good MC and worth over $2000 today if I had it retipped.Anyway as you can see I got my fill of the MC sound.In both cartridges I found there to be a lower-end fuzziness which would not resolve properly(not for want of trying,TWL mod etc.)and really the higher-end seemed tizzy in both MC's.What I have done now is to take a Linn K18 Mk11 MM cartridge and remove the little allan-key frontspiece.This enables it to become once again the souped-up AT-95 it is.I have found an Audio-Technica conical stylus that fits and added a blob of Blu-Tac. This cartridge also really reproduces the info on the record accurately to my ears.Rory Gallagher sounding like he really did live! That's amazing!

In reply to Ctm the output impedance for the Denon is 40 ohms and for the Ortofon 800 ohms according to the cartridge database.I had the Denon loaded at 100 ohms.I tried other loadings with it 47 ohms,220,1Kohm that had been suggested but the 100 ohms manufacturer's suggested was obviously more correct.The Ortofon went through the same stage's MM side with 100pf.The stage I'm using now has a 45Kohm with 300pf setting.This is just about what the VMS 20 prefers as most MM stages are 47Kohm.The Ortofon used to have a little clip-on device to vary the capacitance if you so desired but I have never seen one.So what I can say is that I heard the Denon in a lot of guises and got to know it quite well.I stand by the Ortofon as a "poor man's Koetsu".I think that the Linn K 18 Mk 11 MM must rank as one of my favourite cartridges. It was the one that initially woke me up to the fact that MM's can go stride for stride with MC's.That was only with an elliptical stylus too.I hear it doing even more now with a conical stylus.The level that is way past the "silky" epiphets.It plays the record.The other night I played some English Beatles pressings through the right channel to listen to the stereo mix.It was perfect for every nuance.I don't want to tell you how long I have not heard these records.

I have been interested in doing this kind of MM/MC comparison myself.There is one point I'd like to make in that using different loadings especially with MC's it is easy to alter the sound of the performance on a record.I also found that in using the Denon at 100 ohms for example, it was more true to the actual sound in the real world,and that is probably why this was the manufacturer's recommended setting.I take this approach and look for the real world sound rather than a "sweetened" one.The Denon at 220 ohms for example is quite nice sounding but I moved back to 100 ohms.I used the Denon in several stages at 100 ohms.The stage I am using now is not the same as before as I have now made a system change.I found that,as I said in the earlier post,that Ortofon sold a little capacitor clip-on for the VMS 20.You can use it with or without depending.I am using an English Moth stage made by Stan Curtis with 45 Kohm and 300pf for the MM section.So here is the Ortofon running in a most suitable environment.I heard the Denon through maybe 8 different stages at 100 ohms,the Ortofon and Denon in the same stage.I know I was able to get a grasp of the nature of both cartridges.I think the Ortofon succeeded where at the last hurdle the Denon faltered.The Ortofon can play a record.