Please recommend Best MM catridge


Hi,
My kids are getting older now so I am getting back into vinyl! :) My problem is my Pre-amp: Mcintosh MC-2000's phono section is only made for MM cartridges. I have not been keeping up w/ vinyl so please recommend what you think is the best mm cartridge on the market today. Price is no issue.
I had Shelter 901 before w/ my last tt but had sold it three years ago.
Any chance I could use a high output MC?
Thanks alot everyone.
Nick t
nickt
I was recently blown away by a Denon DL-110, so very definitely I would recommend at least the Denon high-output MCs, which also includes the DL-160, which has a following all its own. Knowing what tonearm/turntable you have would help in recommendations.
Don't know how much you want to spend but the Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood is VERY nive. Not a huge fan of their MC cartridges, but this is a good one, Do a search here on the Gon, you will find a new one about as cheap as a sued one if you don't mind buying from overseas.
Dear Nick: Sumiko Blackbird. This high output MC cartridge is a revelation. Very good performance.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Hi nickt,

Since you've already got a MM phono section, why not try(arguably) the best MM cart on the market right now or ever made - The Cartridge Man Music Maker III. Check out the reviews on the MM3 webpage.

It has a 4mV output and tracks like nobody's business. This is a superb cart for getting back into vinyl(in my fairly limited experience). There's one or two "New in Box" ones being sold here right now for $775

" The MusicMaker (Mk II) is an extremely interesting product; it links the best of both (MM and MC) worlds together; it is clean, accurate and detailed like a good MC while it has the warmth and the "weight" of the best MM's.

In the end, the quality/price ratio of this cartridge is simply excellent. Only real Music Lovers apply."

Lucio Cadeddu, TNT AUDIO

"The first thing you notice is the solidity and presence it has compared to almost all MC cartridges. There's a sense of unstoppable momentum to music...

For anyone using a valve pre-amp like a Conrad-Johnson or early ARC, this cartridge is manna from heaven.
Being used to hearing vastly expensive MCs in a system tailored to their balance, the MusicMaker never left me feeling short-changed. ... never was a product so aptly named; never was an alternative so welcome."

Roy Gregory, Hi-Fi+, 5/00, P52-53

The first and lasting impression of the MusicMaker, with perhaps excrutiatingly obvious tautology, is how well it makes music. Its ability to retrieve and to communicate the essentials of music making – rhythmic and dynamic flow and articulation, organic and identifiable timbre, and sonic punctuation (phrasing, parsing, point of arrival and expression) - grabs one immediately. So convincing is the music making that one is loath to analyze just how it does it. It almost seems irrelevant to analytically break down its sonic performance; so convincing is its musical gestalt. At a time when many cartridges are named after insects, amphibians, various types of wood and gems, and references to Greek mythology, it’s refreshing to hear a cartridge literally named after what it’s supposed to do.

Paul Szabady, Stereotimes, September 2004

Thank you guys. I think the Sumiko Blackbird could be the one! My phono section has a gain of 40db at 1000Hz. Do you think that's enough to drive this mc?
Nick t
I second the Music Maker, kicks the heck out of any of the coils listed above and you'll never have to worry about gain.
I'll tack on to the recommendations for the Music Maker. It provides the best of the MM and MC.
Um, shouldn't someone be asking him what tonearm this cartridge is going on? Recommending a cartridge without knowing that is shooting in the dark. He could end up with some horrible mismatch.
First post I asked already, and still no peep. It is a Mystery. And why no Grado Woody recommendations?!
I bought a used Grado Reference The Reference Phono Cartridge the one that cost $1,200.00 for $500.00 used and I'm spinning vinyl constantly now.I posted a write up on my comments about this find under product review.Grado also makes one cartridge better then this, But its a low output .25Mv. The Staetment and cost $2,500.00 new.
The Reference puts out over 4MV. and would be no problem with your setup.
ortofon super om 30 is a sonic bargain at 159.00-needle doctor. a wonderful tracer and brilliant with classical and jazz. very good with vocals as well. somewhat forward but will serve your needs well if proper care and attention is devoted to set-up. you can pay more to get much less.