"Serge Auckland" wrote in
message

My question is why Moving Coils should be thought to be
better than moving magnets. I can think of several
reasons why they should be worse, lower compliance and
higher mass, but not why they should be better.

Good question.

Trackability should be better on a MM, as should record
wear due to lower tracking weights.
The quality of the stylus may be better on an expensive
cartridge, but in my own case, I have a Goldring 1042 and
a Shure V15IIIMR. The stylus in the Goldring is the Gyger
S, I understand similar to the VdH, the Shure MR is a
Namiki profile, so they are as good as anything available
on a moving coil.

Similarly, frequency response plots of moving magnets and
moving coils don't show any particular benefit to the MC,
nor does stereo separation or harmonic and
intermodulation distortion. So why *are* MC cartridges
throught to be better?

MC cartridges seem to be harder to make, so they can be priced higher and
provide more profits for their makers and sellers.

They also are more critical of the electronics that they are used with -
more opportunities for snob appeal and more profits.

If anyone knows of any good engineering reasons why this
should be so, I would be most interested to hear.

Don't hold your breath for anything believable.