"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article , Trevor
Wilson wrote:


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?

**Er, not quite. The FR plots of MC carts, in some cases, CAN be shown
to be superior. The reason, of course, is blindingly simple. It's all
about inductance. The inductance of (LOW OUTPUT) MC carts is very low,
indeed. This enables them to produce a very flat, very wide (up to
around 60kHz) frequency response, with a correspondingly superior rise
time.

The problem with this is that the mechanical resonances will still exist.
:-)

Also bear in mind that with a decent MM cartridge you can arrange the
loading to give quite a flat response if that is your concern. I've not
personally had any worries on that score with my own Shure V15/III...

Alas, magazines and makers now tend to avoid giving any useful data on
cartridges. Hence we usually can't now assess the level of compliance, tip
mass, etc, etc. Nor, indeed the levels of distortion.

My recollection was that MC's became 'flavour of the year' with some
subjective reviewers precisely because the ones in question did *not* have
a flat response, and they liked the changes, but then ascribed this to
'magic'... :-)



More and more these days, I'm finding there comes a time when it pays not to
read the ingredients when you are eating something.

Without any knowledge of the 'claimed specifications' of the kit in use, I
did indeed experience some 'magical' qualities with a number of 'nothing
special' old (freebie) MC carts a while back - *all* of which I would have
expected to be some way off claimed, original performance specifications,
due to age and infirmity.

The MC10 I mentioned in an earlier post actually had quite a badly bent
cantilever which had obviously had one or two attempts to straighten it
(including 2 attempts by me) which eventually slowly sank to its death,
still sounding quite unutterably *sublime* until the bodywork was actually
riding the vinyl! It was almost a tragical experience!! ('Sublime = 'sweet,
delicate, sonorous, detailed' and *captivating' in this instance...)

Not too 'scientific' I know, but there is more in it for me than just the
numbers. (Perhaps I'm more of a 'mystic' myself than I would care to admit!!
;-)