What is the preferred cartrige mm or mc and why

The fact that your cartridge is an MC does not make it superior to MM cartridge (or Moving Iron, Moving Flux etc). It's been said many times and approved by many audiophiles worldwide, not by those people who's buying cartridge by reviews or stereophile top 100 recommendation, but those who dig deeper and really understand the process and testing different cartridges in their systems. This is the ONLY way find what's the best.   

I use both MC and MM, practically i prefer MM cartridges, the best MM cartridges are vintage MM cartridges and they are much cheaper than very bad MC cartridges and probably 10 times cheaper than some good modern MC. But the cost is no object in this experiment, it's fact that decent MM could the the last cartridge, no need to search or pay more for an MC. In most cases the cost of MC phono stage or SUT or MM phono stage +SUT or MM phono stage +HEADAMP is a pain in the ass when it comes to LOMC. Then add re-tipping process and so on. 

The MM/MI/MF has replacement styli, relatively high output, they are neutrial, they are cheaper, they are amazing if you know which one to buy. 

Some reasonably priced vintage MC cartridges are good, but people are crazy when they are buying $3000-8000 MC cartridges without having a chance to audition a decent $700-1200 MM from the 70s/80s in perfect condition.     

Watch Peter Lederman’s of SOUNDSMITH lecture:
https://youtu.be/F65mODzn4Gk ... to find out why MC must be avoided and why the MI is better according to his opinion. SoundSmith refurbished/retipped many thousands MC cartridges.

Technics MM cartridges with the world’s smallest effective moving mass (0.098mg) and flat frequency response from 5Hz to 100kHz can not be ignored by those people who claims about high moving mass of the MM system.

Then remember Mr. Walter O. Stanton and his extremely low output MM cartrisges (for example). Walter Stanton believed to his dying day that NO moving coil cartridge could ever be any good. Unlike ordinary high impedance cartridges, the Stanton 980 LZS is insensitive to capacitive loading. The Frequency response of the 980 LZS extends to beyond 50kHz in order to assure flawless reproduction of all overtones and signal harmonics which exist and are captured and recorded on modern discs. Although those frequencies cannot be heard directly, their interaction with other frequencies creates subharmonics which are in the audible range. Also any transducer capable of reproducing such high frequencies perform admirably within the audible rangeresponding without hesitation to any transient so vitally important in true recreation of original sound.

"Aficionados of moving-coil (MC) cartridges will be surprices and pleased to learm that 980LZS is indistinguishable from the very best moving-coil (MC) types in the most rigorous laboratory and aural tests. Stanton’s is an impressive dual archivement. I was continually aware that 980LZS sounded like a moving-coil (MC) cartridge. The bass was well defined and tight with good sonic clarity, as well as transient response and applause definition. Transparency of sound was excellent when reproducing the high recorded levels present on most direct-to-disc recordings. At no time did i notice any coloration of the music. The 980LZS is also, one of the very few phono cartridges that can cleanly reproduce the cannon fire on the Telarc DG-10041 recording of Tchaikovsky’s 1812." - B.V.Pisha (Audio Review, Feb.1982)



And finally these statement from TAS MAG:
http://www.regonaudio.com/Stanton881AudioTechnicaATML70.html

As ASP pointed out in TAS (Issue 70), the audiophile consumer and dealer community is massively arrayed against MOVING MAGNETS cartridges. But experimentation is interesting, and in this case inexpensive. If your audiophile friends give you a hard time, you’ll certainly have a pat answer: you can say if it’s good enough for Kavi Alexander, Jim Boyk, and Doug Sax, it’s good enough for me. The AT-ML170 has tip resonance at 40 kHz, and hence response that extends to that frequency at least. Flanders again: "The ear can’t hear as high as that. Still, it ought to please any passing bat." Seriously, though, such ultra-extension does seem to be associated to exceptional top end clarity.
Everyone is entitled to personal tastes, but truth is truth. If you want to hear something like the truth, I still say-no matter what everyone else is using-that you should buy a flat-top cartridge like the AT-ML170 and avoid all MC cartridges with a rising top-end. If the sound of live music is your goal, why would you want to hear sound which is not only untrue to its source but also is something you are "seldom conscious of live".

The contrast between these views of moving magnet cartridges and usual audiophile opinion is striking. On the one hand, we have assurances of these leaders of the High-End recording industry that the best MOVING MAGNETS are very close to the master tape (or live mike feed, for direct to disc) and that they are capable of "uncanny" resolution. On the other hand, we have the prevailing perception, amounting almost to a shibboleth, of the High-End listening community, that only MOVIN COILS are realistic in some sense of that word and that moving magnets are incapable of sonic truth.

If the buyer will summarize the cost of that cheap Denon + the cost of refurbishing work then he will come to the amount of $630 + shipping both ways. We’re not counting the price of the SUT, Headamp or MC phono stage here (it will cost much more with it added to the cost).

For $700 anyone can buy an amazing ORIGINAL cartridge with superior cantilever/stylus combo. It can be Grace F9 Ruby or F-9F with Shibata, Audio-Technica AT-ML170 (Gold-plated Boron Cantilever and MicroLine typ) ... i can add more to the list in MM class and they are not in the cheap plastic body like Denon 103. If you believe in magic refurbishing then all those carts can be refurbished by SoundSmith too. The price for those models with broken cantilevers are even cheaper than Denon 103. Also any owner can try to find original stylus replacement. Those cartridges are superior to Denon LOMC and does not require expensive SUT/Headamp, just MM phono stage with 45kOhm or 100kOhm load. So why bother with refurbishing of the Denon design from the 60s?

@rauliruegas

that’s what i said:

... people are crazy when they are buying $3000-8000 MC cartridges without having a chance to audition a decent $700-1200 MM from the 70s/80s in perfect condition.

I did it the wrong way by starting off with $3500-4000 ZYX and $4500-5000 ZYX cartridges when i jumped on High-End territory. For about 18 years prior to that moment my turntable was equipped with mediorce MI like Grado, Shure and Ortofon MM carts. In between i discovered the sound of Technics 205c mk3, 205c mk4 and 100c mk3. But the opinion makers hypnotized me that MC is superior, so i tried Audio-Technica ART2000 and that was the best MC cartridge in my early days (the price was about $600 used). Now i have very rare MM cartridges and they are superior to any MC i have owned, but i’m still tryin to find some vintage MC that can compete with them, but i’m not gonna buy $3000-5000 MC anymore for sure. One of the best MC (according to our members) is already in my collection (Ortofon MC2000 NOS) along with various Fidelity-Research MC carts that i like at the moment.

Would be nice to see your MC list.

P.S. Believe it or not, but i’m waiting for my First Watt F2J amp designed for fullrange crossover-less speakers. Then i will be a battle between my tube push-pull amp vs. single-ended Class A current-source F2J.

@audioaffin this topic is about MM vs. MC cartridges

@atmasphere 

 to get the best out of MM its a good idea to load them correctly.

This the reason why people don't really understand the potential of MM cartridges, their phono stage has ONLY 47k Ohm loading. It must be at least 30-100K Ohm range to try different loading with MM. 

@atmasphere Right, i use JLTi phono stage for the same reason with a bunch of different RCA plugs resistors. I just asked the designer of JLTi to change internal resistors to 500k Ohm, so i can load it down with parallel RCA plugs resistors to whatever loading value i want. I can do the same for MC cartridges with this phono stage.

On the other phono stages i just replaced 47k to 100k Ohm (Vishay Naked Foil) and it’s better for most of my MM carts.