Both Lewm and Chakster have valid points. Moving magnet, iron or coil is not an issue with tonearm matching. It is purely an issue of cartridge compliance and the effective mass of the tonearm. There is significant variability in both parameters so in reality the only way you can really know what is going on is to use a test record like the one chakster recommends. Having said this moving magnet cartridges tend towards higher compliance and lighter tonearms. The lowest compliance cartridges are moving coil. Moving irons have a foot in both puddles. Having seen some interesting test results I am favoring lighter tonearms and more compliant cartridges as they follow undulations (low frequency) in the vinyl surface better. Looking at an oscilloscope they produce less low frequency rubbish. Heavy arms can not move fast enough (more inertia) transferring the undulations to the cantilever. It is sort of like your woofer flapping at low frequencies. It is not making any sound but you can hear it in the higher frequencies due to Doppler distortion. It is hard to make a big car handle like a sports car for the same reasons.
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I am a MM/MI guy and use a phono stage specific to MM/MI carts of the high output verity. If I decide to go MC low I will buy a SUT. Gail 2 https://www.lejonklou.com/products/gaio-grammofonsteg-2/ matches well with all my Nagaoka MP Cart’s |
@surfmuz you want very simple answers, but it’s impossible to say what is better, each MC phono stage is different, they are not the same. When someone will tell you that SUT is always better - this statement is false. For example you can read about Aurorasound Vida and if you read carefully you will understand this is unique design (like no othe MC phono stage). Then you can read about current-mode MC phono stage from 47Labs and this is another unique design. You know about tube phono stages too, they are way different from Solid State ... .. so on and on ... Do not expect simple answers! |
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