What is it in MM that can give me goose-bumps? 🤔

Dear @justmetoo : I think the main issue belongs not exactly to your room/system/ears ( at least I can't be sure because I don't know for true  its quality level performance. The Burmester is a bass-reflex design and the bass woofers are side firing: the rflex in the design too or at the back?. I have some hyphotesis about the overall issue that I only figure out. ) but a psycho-acustic phenomenom about the kind of whole " color " of MUSIC that moves you the more and LOMC/CD have not that kind of MUSIC color, that's all and this is my take.

So, enjoy it and enjoy what moves you.

R.

Burmester 961 bass reflex port is in rear of the speaker, 20" off the ground, also not straight but curved, about 30° down inside the speaker and covered with 3mm damping felt layer around outer-side (inside the speaker enclosure). 
Side firing 8" woofers at centre point, are 27" off the ground. 
This, as I understand it, is to reduce floor reflections... 
Michélle 🇿🇦 

Hi, nice discussion, your passion for sound and music shines through.  
My experiences with MM and MC are different and summarizing I believe the key is to find the right MC.  
I agree that really good MMs can convey an emotional sound that seems to go beyond just playing back recorded music.  Pitch and tone along with the smoothness of vinyl can be mesmerizing.  
The problem that I have heard is that it isn't consistent recording to recording, can sound unrefined with challenging ones and lack ultimate dynamics that the best MCs seem to possess.  
If you ever have a chance I recommend trying the Audio Technica ART series MCs, the XA if you have 64db min gain, or the XI if you have 56 to 60 db of gain.  These to me have the best of both MM and MC.  
Ultra refined, dynamic yet with a slightly warm smooth character that is engaging.  

Currently using Pickering XSV/5000 (Stereohedron mkII stylus) Moving Magnet cartridge from the late 80’s. Two turntables connected, here is my system, two tonearms on each turntable. Some killer LOMC are here (FR-7fz, Miyabi MCA) on very nice tonearms like Lustre GST-801 and FR-64s with b60. Speakers are Tannoy System 15 mkII.

Pickering XSV/5000 (MM) cartridge is the cheapest of them all (replaced by Grado Signature XTZ), tonearm also much cheaper (Denon DA-401 for high compliance cartridges). I must tell that this XSV/5000 cartridge is amazing.

I like my expensive LOMC too, but MM is a different flavor, 4 times cheaper price than any of my LOMC, same about Denon tonearm for this cart. And I have everything for LOMC (SUTs, high gain phono stages, headamps, current injection phono stages... everything).

There is NOTHING to loose with the right MM, it’s amazing sound for 4 times lower budget, because all you need is MM phono (100k Ohm loading option is a must) and the right tonearm. I prefer high compliance MM.

What you can get for $700 with MM you can’t get even for $3k (including SUT) with MC.

And user replaceable stylus for MM is a great bonus instead of that crazy third party re-tipping service that ruin the originality of your MC. 

@chakster and all

Very dedicated responses, oh yes!
Also the sharing of set-ups for perspective.
Thank you!

My system is by far more 'stream-lined', far less dedicated, far less high-end, and more to my current room (and finacial) abilities. 

So, only one tt, one tonearm - and all SS from the ML 326S preamp included phono boards, (mostly surface mounted devices including op-amps for 40dB and 60dB options, all via internal jumpers, and lowest loading std. 49k ohm, also by tiny jumpers - no viable 100k, more open, loading) to the X350.5 power amp. Amen!

Living in South Africa, and 'suffering the 25th year of 'liberation' and now Covid changes - typical African corruption - the local currency has gone to hell in a hand-basket.) Amen! 

In short I had to learn to do with what I have, aquired some time back in better days, when mail, postal services were actually still functioning, and deliveries not being stolen or 'lost' as it's simply called.
It's all kindly called 'The New Dispensation' and all the world so much happier for it. Amen! 

It will give you some idea, why other than desperate measures, prevent one from purchasing anything other than what's locally still available - and any hi-fi highend kind things are by now 'scarce as chicken teeth'. Amen! 

Why choose to live here?! 
That's too long a story to relate, truly - or why chose people to live in the USSR at the time? 
Maybe less complicated, in general. 

Ok, back on subject now.
I most resently mounted my Ortofon M20FL super, and in better days also had purched the E super insert (all NOS from Germany). 

I'd just followed some positive AGONE block comments on the endlessly long 'Who needs MCs when we have MMs' by Raul... 
Though I wasn't aware at the time, of the 40cu compliance, more like Jello (or Wackelpeter in German :) despite the borderline compatibility with my SME V t-arm, working really great and yet again, sounding noticeably more 'real' than the more 'hyped-up' MC presentations - in my system. 

In closing, maybe it is simply a case of synergy and equipment set-up, as e.g. apparently the ML326S phono-boards where based on the much older reference ML35 phone-pre, add-on unit...
I surmise this to be so, as some time past, I had a chance to test and compare this stand-alone unit. It sounded absolutely the same when compared to my build-in phono-boards. 

So I'm currently enjoying once again the magic sound of an MI cartridge, the M20 E super, at a VTF of 1 gramm! (on a medium effective mass t-arm, 10-11g) and anti-scate force of 0.5 pond, no less! 

This is like the funky 70s - just with better gear, eh? 😅 👏

Michélle 🇿🇦