Need A High Compliance Cartridge

Van Den Hul makes, made many hi compliance carts. I've used one for many years. Unfortunately it needs a rebuild now, I also don't have an arm for it anymore. I think mine  has a compliance of 34 and its mass is around 5g. 

you could find a used one and have it rebuilt. or depending on your budget buy new. I will say there is something special about VDH stylus profile. 

There are dozens and dozens of high and low output cartridges that could be classed as "high compliance".  This should not be a problem for an experienced audiophile like you, Neon.

@lewm  Actually the vintage higher compliance cartridges aren't in my wheelhouse. Sure I know the later V15 versions but that is mostly it. I also hear that some like Accutex have suspensions that harden. Was just trying to find a couple of good candidates for this evaluation. My MC2000 will be one cartridge, but I need a more typical one too. 

Sound Smith has higher compliance versions of most of its cartridges.

I just purchased a London Decca Super Gold. No idea what the compliance is and no idea what your budget is, but the sound is incredible. Cost is around $3k - if its anywhere near your budget I would highly suggest checking it out. The design is totally different from any other cartridge out there. Design is from Decca way back in 1950's. As the one guy told me "we are building what Decca wouldnt'/couldn't back then.

@dmk_calgary I'm a huge fan of Deccas, but I wouldn't begin to know how to think of them in terms of compliance. The movement (particularly lateral movement) of the armature must be so small, I guess the proper description is "Compliance: not applicable"!

Van den Huls are high compliance. At new, they can be VERY tricky with tracking until the suspension breaks in a bit. Then they’re nice carts. I just had to stick with it and not give up. Used them with both low (VPI) and medium-high mass (FR64fx) arms - honestly didn’t notice much difference based on mass.

Most MI (like Grado and SoundSmith) and MM carts tend to be high compliance, because these designs do not feature the stiff suspension string and stout damper typical of most MC designs (they can also be more fragile due to this). Van den Hul is the exception, making MC’s with relatively high compliance.

Lyras are on the high side of medium compliance cartridges and generally do well with lower mass arms. You can always add a little mass. Soundsmith sells a really nice set of graded mass cartridge screws.

You can buy an Ortofon OM5e Super for $79.99 and then purchase an OM40 Stylus for $340.00. That's a high compliance low mass cart with an aggressive line contact nude stylus.  I sold one like this to a guy who had inherited an Infinty Black Widow and it worked out well for him.  My experience dates from the golden era of high compliance MM carts, before MCs became de riguer in audiophile setups.  My faves were Sonus Blue Label and ADC XLMs.  You can still score XLMs on eBay, and Jico makes a quality stylus for them.

Soundsmith carts are available in low, medium, and high compliance, plus have a pretty amazing story behind them - including a great rebuild policy. 

https://www.sound-smith.com/cartridge-compliancearm-mass-chart

@crustycoot Those are my 2 favorites carts from back in the day. I owned both. In fact I still have an XLM here somewhere but it's a later (MK3 perhaps) version. The originals were the best. Unfortunately after many people trashed them on the wrong arms, ADC lowered the compliance in MK2 and 3.

They are glorious sounding pieces though. MUCH better than the Shures of the day.