You want to use a cartridge in a tonearm that resonates at the right frequencies when mounted in the arm so you don not want to use a high compliance cartridge in a high mass arm just like a low compliance cartridge does not work in a low mass arm. The other important factor is gain and cartridge output you need enough gain to match the cartridge otherwise you will introduce noise especially with low or very low output moving coils. A perfect match would be when you arm and cartridge do not distort or mistrack over any loud passages nor do they hum or make noise over the entire record surface.
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When designing a cartridge, the moving coil (MC) principle has a greater ultimate potential than moving magnet (MM) does. But as moving coils are difficult to manufacture and very sensitive to imperfections, all the good ones are expensive. Cheap moving coils sound terrible, so in the budget territory moving magnets rule. When building the best possible turntable from parts, there is a strict hierarchy to observe. The most important parts are the turntable mechanics and the motor, then follows the arm and finally the cartridge. It can easily be demonstrated that a modest MM cartridge mounted on a high quality arm outperforms the most expensive MC cartridge mounted on a lower quality arm. This is because the arm is more important than the cartridge. Observing this hierarchy, it is wise to always optimise your turntable mechanics, motor, arm and even the furniture on which the turntable stands before considering replacing your high quality MM cartridge with an MC. Another reason to use a high quality MM cartridge is that it allows quick and inexpensive stylus replacements and therefore has a dramatically lower cost per hour of music played. Unlike most MC owners, you don’t need to worry about the condition of your stylus. And if a stylus should happen to be damaged, the party can continue within a minute. |
With audio there's always something to consider. If you're using a name brand like Pro-Ject or Rega turntable; probably no issues. But you also must consider your stylus type. For some carts like the Ortofon 2M Black or MC Black with Nude Shibata stylus you'll need to make sure your tonearm has multiple adjustments to set proper adjustment of alignment, antiskating, azimuth and tracking force. https://www.ortofon.com/media/151039/ortofon2m-seriesbrochure_2020.pdf |
Mijo, What I was trying to say is that there is more to matching cartridges with tonearms than just concern about compliance and effective mass, and therefore the resonant frequency calculation. I have found that some cartridges just come more alive in some tonearms (or in some headshells, where the tonearm has a detachable headshell). Sometimes the best match for pure SQ is not the best match for resonant frequency. I think this is in part because the values we plug into the equation for resonant frequency are often inaccurate. For example, somewhere up the thread, someone mentioned that he calculated an Fr of 10 or 11Hz. Then when he determined Fr using the HFNRR test LP, the result was 7Hz. That actually suggests a big discrepancy between the assumed values of M and C and their actual values. |
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