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Recommend an MC alternative to Clearaudio Maestro

I currently have the Clearaudio Maestro Wood cart (V1) on a Clearaudio Satisfy Tonearm. I've always used MM carts and I'd like to finally give MC a shot. Are there any good MC carts at ~$1000 (or less) that are on par with the Maestro cart? Ideally I'd like to try something relatively inexpensive to start, but my concern is that comparing the Maestro to a cheap MC will be like comparing apples to oranges. Any thoughts?
rublyow

Showing 1 response by plato

plato
1,543 posts
 
The Audio Technica AT33EV is quite good and not too expensive. And a lot of folks like the Denon DL103r. But they are very low output-- about 0.25mV so you'd likely need somewhere between 61 to 72dB of total gain from your phono stage.

A lot of folks load the AT33EV at around 100 ohms but I achieved a more natural treble balance loading it at 80 ohms.
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