@lewm Invictus, Your and Chakster’s zeal for MM cartridges over all else is in my opinion just as misplaced as is Raul’s recent conversion to the religion of the moving coil cartridge. Your blanket statement that any cheap MM can outperform any high-end moving coil cartridge is at least a little exaggerated, don’t you think? In this hobby, it’s always a good idea to keep an open mind. Anyway that’s my own opinion.
I’m trying to be specific with a choice of MM for a person who is a begginer as we can see by threads started by him. I really think that the advantages of the MM is obvious, not only speclacular sound quality (when it comes to Stanton/Pickering, Grace, Victor, Audio-Technica...), but more user friendly (stylus replacement for example) with a choice of the phono stage.
My favorite LOMC is currently Fidelity-Research FR-7fz which is very limited in choice of tonearm, and Ortofon MC2000 which is too complicated in choice of preamp. Both are extremely rare cartridges. I have some more LOMC which i like (so i think i’m open minded enough), one of them is Fidelity-Research PMC-3, Argent low outoput and even some high output Argent MC cartridges made in the 80’s by Excel Sound much better than Excel Sound’s current Hanna for example. Got the mega rare Miyabi waiting my audition here. I enjoyed my old AT ART-2000 and i’m sure the ART-9 must be great too.
But once a begginer will damage them the repair is almost impossible or too expensive. The best MC for a begginer is the one which can be factory repaired and retipped for reasonable price (not as high as the new cartridge). Most of the cartridge can be damaged during mounting process if a person is a begginer. Lyra cartridges like some VdH and Dynavectors has unprotected cantilever in front of it, which is very easy to damage (i would never buy such cartridge)!
Practically the MC cartridges are very very bad (imo) to start with. Miyajima was one of the manufacturer who offered reasonably priced re-tipping service and some of their models are not expensive (especially used). I’ve managed to damage one very very expensive MC and it was the worst experience in my "audio life" and a very big loss (financially). Also i think people brainwashed by reviewers that MC are better, some of them are really good, but we must be very specific in choice of MC and an appropriate phono stage or sut for them. At the OPs price range i would look for vintage MC or (much better) vintage MM or MI. Anyway i’m sure he will realize it later on.
Stylus replacement even for vintage MM or MI is amazing opportunity to use the cartridge forever.
I am not trying to blame the OP or Lyra.
Anyway, some people ignoring my advices and buyin some cr*p because more people will tell them this cr*p is really good. Some people just want to justify their purchase and all they need is 10 more people to say: "yeah this is really good choice". I don’t understand this logic, because the most popular cartridges are not good, one example is Denon DL-103, when the begginer search for MC he will find millions of comment how good and musical this cartridge, but in reality there are many more truly amazing cartridges for the same price, most of them are vintage MM.
