A good cartridge is a good cartridge whether it is MC or MM. I have a Virtuoso (mm) and a Sumiko Celebration (MC) and they both sound great. MC's are suppose to be a bit quieter and clearer in sound. They are but an extremely good mm will compete and even sound just as good . The Virtuoso is the best mm I have heard - I tried the Shure bigboy but it cannot compete with the Virtuoso. I also tried the Grado Sonato but I didn't care for its sound - a lot of people like it though. The MC needs more gain in the phono stage so you may have to buy an outside phono amp or a stepup transformer to supply the necessary volume for sound to be produced. A good many preamps come with a mm stage already to go. A friend has the Sigma and likes it a lot - in a little test we really could not truly tell which sounded better - the Virtuoso or the Sigma - but they both sound great.
MM vs. MC: Sonic Differences?
I've always owned low-output MC cartridges, but now wonder what, as a broad generalization, are the sonic differences between these two technologies? For instance how might the ClearAudio Virtuoso Wood ($750 - MM) compare to the ClearAudio Sigma Wood ($1200 - MC)?
In other words, are the low output MC cartridges really worth the extra expense, requirement for a fairly sophisticated RIAA, etc.?
I know that this is an extremely subjective question. Please don't respond with "it depends." Instead, please educate me regarding your experiences. Thanks in advance.
In other words, are the low output MC cartridges really worth the extra expense, requirement for a fairly sophisticated RIAA, etc.?
I know that this is an extremely subjective question. Please don't respond with "it depends." Instead, please educate me regarding your experiences. Thanks in advance.