"Z" did a very nice job of summing things up. Hats off to him for contributing a very concise and useful post.
As a general rule, most MC ( moving coil ) cartridges work best with arms of medium to high mass and most MM ( moving magnet ) or MI ( moving iron ) prefer low to medium mass. Both moving magnet and moving iron tend to share a lot of common traits ( tracking abilities, mass, compliance, output levels, etc.. ), so they are generaly lumped together into one category. Picking an arm that is somewhere in the middle ( medium mass ) would offer the most versatility in terms of cartridge selection but could negate offerings from the outer fringes of either type.
Personally, i have two Sota Star Sapphire's. One is equipped with an ET II arm and the other with a Clearaudio TQ-1. As you may know, both of these are linear tracking arms but vary pretty drastically in terms of the mass that the cartridge sees / has to deal with. My brother has a Sota Sapphire that is equipped with a pivoted arm. It is an Audio Dynamics Corporation ( aka "ADC" ) ALT-1 tonearm, which is a very low mass aluminum design that is pivoted and straight ( not "S" or "J" shaped ). This works out fine as he is running an MM cartridge that requires a very low mass arm.
Either way, think of the cartridge / arm / table as working together in unison. Assembling a bunch of "good quality" components that won't necessarily work well together is an easy mistake to make. As such, be careful with whom you work with when it comes to selecting arms / cartridges. I've gotten some REALLY bad suggestions from what were supposed to be "professional" shops that specialized in vinyl. If you can find a dealer that you feel comfortable with ( whether brick and mortar or on the web ), it might not be a bad idea to ask for opinions here before lying down the cash for a combo that they suggest. Biases aside, we'll do our best to try and help you out as to whether it would be a good match. Sean
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As a general rule, most MC ( moving coil ) cartridges work best with arms of medium to high mass and most MM ( moving magnet ) or MI ( moving iron ) prefer low to medium mass. Both moving magnet and moving iron tend to share a lot of common traits ( tracking abilities, mass, compliance, output levels, etc.. ), so they are generaly lumped together into one category. Picking an arm that is somewhere in the middle ( medium mass ) would offer the most versatility in terms of cartridge selection but could negate offerings from the outer fringes of either type.
Personally, i have two Sota Star Sapphire's. One is equipped with an ET II arm and the other with a Clearaudio TQ-1. As you may know, both of these are linear tracking arms but vary pretty drastically in terms of the mass that the cartridge sees / has to deal with. My brother has a Sota Sapphire that is equipped with a pivoted arm. It is an Audio Dynamics Corporation ( aka "ADC" ) ALT-1 tonearm, which is a very low mass aluminum design that is pivoted and straight ( not "S" or "J" shaped ). This works out fine as he is running an MM cartridge that requires a very low mass arm.
Either way, think of the cartridge / arm / table as working together in unison. Assembling a bunch of "good quality" components that won't necessarily work well together is an easy mistake to make. As such, be careful with whom you work with when it comes to selecting arms / cartridges. I've gotten some REALLY bad suggestions from what were supposed to be "professional" shops that specialized in vinyl. If you can find a dealer that you feel comfortable with ( whether brick and mortar or on the web ), it might not be a bad idea to ask for opinions here before lying down the cash for a combo that they suggest. Biases aside, we'll do our best to try and help you out as to whether it would be a good match. Sean
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