2. analog
  3. 141617-2195

Mono Cartridge Recommendations

I am looking for a true mono cartridge, as I am adding a second tonearm (Musical Life Conductor SE 10") to my Technics SP10ii table. My phono preamp is an Einstein Turntables Choice - so I am looking for a MC cartridge.  Considerations include:

  • whether the cartridge was truly designed for mono (cantilever only moves laterally, typically uses just a single coil) 
  • compliance (many mono cartridges have low compliance, which can chew up grooves of modern mono records (although I'll mostly be listening to older records)
  • stylus shape/size - I could use some guidance here....
My price range is $1-2k.  Currently under consideration is the VAS Nova Mono (has two coils in balanced configuration, output ~ 0.8 mv), and the Miyajima Labs series (all have compliance around 8, which is kind of low).  Can people who have experience in this area provide some recommendations with supporting information (why).  Thanks very much, Peter
peter_s

Showing 2 responses by lewm

lewm
13,476 posts
 
bdp, Back in the 70s, my close audiophile friend and I both purchased Decca London cartridges, which we liked very much.  But somewhere or other we read that the performance could be enhanced by fiddling with an adjustable platform that was accessible by removing the top of the cartridge, which simply slides off to the rear.  Being tinkerers, we each separately "adjusted" our cartridges for best sound, and we were very pleased with the results,.... until we figured out that we had converted the stereo signal into mono.  In an attempt to reverse the damage, I tried to re-adjust mine but I don't think it ever sounded as good thereafter.
lewm
13,476 posts
 
In the "old days", it was widely known that using a mono cartridge on a stereo LP was verboten or at best ill-advised.  Some vintage early stereo LP album covers even have that warning printed on the back, in fine print at the bottom right of the text.  This warning is consistent with the concept that a (vintage) true mono cartridge with very low vertical compliance might potentially damage the groove walls of a stereo LP, which encode musical information in the vertical as well as the horizontal direction. Whereas mono LPs produce no musical signal due to vertical deflection of the cantilever.  In those days, many if not most audiophiles owned mono cartridges as their main standby, so it made sense to make sure that those converting to stereo ought to use caution. Clearthink's sarcasm and bad manners are not at all justified. Not that such nastiness is ever justifiable on this forum.

However, in the modern era we have a plethora of new mono cartridges, only a few of which can be said to be "true mono".  Miyajima mono cartridges are some of a very few such cartridges available.  Most other recent production "mono" cartridges are actually stereo cartridges within which the channels are bridged one way or another to produce a mono output.  Such cartridges are likely to have decent vertical compliance, unless they have been radically revised from their stereo origins, and such mono cartridges are not likely to damage a stereo LP.  Whether or not a Miyajima mono (or any of the few other true mono cartridges) can damage a stereo LP, I do not know.  But Robin Wyatt would know.
More to discover