My first-ever record player was the Pioneer PL-112D. It was passed on to me from an older family member when they moved on to something more ambitious. My memories are of a solid budget belt-drive turntable with a nicely engineered S-shaped arm. The Pioneer came fitted with a Shure M75ED moving-magnet cartridge, which was a suitably decent partner for the deck.
The cartridge worked well; however, I was afflicted with the hi-fi upgrade bug at the time, and couldn’t resist the urge to swap the Shure for something that I thought was better. That something turned out to be Nagaoka’s legendary MP-11. It cost £18 at the time.
This upgrade was part of a greater plan. The problem, as always, was money – or rather the lack of it. Bear in mind that I was barely into double figures, and full-time work was still almost a decade away at that point. Those funds clearly weren’t going to be forthcoming any time soon, even with a paper round.
What was my grand plan? The Pioneer PL-112D would be swapped for a Systemdek IIS within a few years. That, in turn, was merely a stepping stone to what I really wanted: a proper high-end record player such as a Linn LP12/Ittok combination or an original Pink Triangle with a Helius Orion tonearm.
As an aside, I now know that those two high-end turntable options are so different in character that the probability of liking both equally is pretty much zero. But that’s what comes from making decisions from solely reading reviews rather than having a listen myself. That lesson has been painfully learned over the years.
And of course, regardless of the high-end package I picked, it had to be complemented by a suitable moving-coil cartridge. I dreamed of owning a Koetsu, as many did at the time.
Moving-coil cartridges, in general, continue to have an exotic allure that evades moving-magnet designs, almost regardless of price. Physics has something to do with it, of course.
The reduced inertial mass of a moving-coil design means that the stylus tip has an easier job tracking the various wiggles in a record groove. More detail, greater sonic agility and finesse are usually the result. This is the reason almost every high-end cartridge I come across is a moving-coil design.
So, if science is on the side of moving coils, why are the vast majority of the cartridges that What Hi-Fi? recommends moving magnets?
Cheaper moving coils as a breed certainly seem to struggle to ram home their potential advantages. Maybe it’s the manufacturing compromises inherent in hitting a low price point, but few sub-£500 moving-coil models we have heard can compete in all-round terms with the best moving magnet alternatives.
There are flashes of that potential in the way some of them resolve low-level detail or their overall clarity, yet they are left floundering in areas such as punch, drive and authority. There are exceptions, of course – and I would count the new Ortofon MC X30 among them.
At £599/$699, it is one of the few affordable choices that truly succeeds in delivering on the moving-coil promise. This is a cartridge that I have no issue recommending to just about anyone, provided the rest of their system is up to scratch.
You see, the MC X30 needs a capable record player to shine, and maybe that doesn’t come as a surprise, given its price and pretensions. But there is a less obvious, and arguably even greater hurdle: the quality of the partnering phono stage.
It isn’t hard to find a phono stage with moving-coil compatibility. We routinely test budget options with such a feature, including some that barely cross the £100 mark. The problem is that none we have reviewed has sounded good enough to highlight a moving coil’s potential sonic advantages. Typically, their MC circuitry tends to lack the transparency and energy of its moving-magnet counterpart.
That’s easy to understand given that a typical moving-magnet stage has to amplify the cartridge’s signal by around 100 times, and a moving-coil circuit has to go further still by a factor of 10. Any shortcomings or distortions in the circuit are magnified to the same extent.
What’s the most affordable phono stage we’ve tested that performs well with moving-coil cartridges? Until recently, the answer would have been the recently discontinued, and rather excellent, Musical Fidelity MX-VYNL (£770). As that has now gone, we need to move to the likes of Vertere’s Phono-1 MkII L (£1495) or Rega’s Aria Mk3 (£1150). A pretty hefty outlay, right? If we were talking about moving-magnet phono stages, my starter recommendations would be the Rega Phono MM Mk5 (£330), followed by the Graham Slee Reflex M (£540).
So you see the problem. If you go for an excellent and relatively affordable moving-coil cartridge such as the MC X30, you still have to factor in a suitable phono stage. That will make your package price a lot higher than someone who buys the almost as capable Nagaoka MP-200 moving magnet and something like the Graham Slee. Sure, the Ortofon MC X30-based pairing will sound better, but the extra outlay to allow it to shine is significant.
Admittedly, it is impossible for What Hi-Fi? to test every single phono stage being manufactured, and there may be a really talented affordable moving-coil capable unit that has slipped through our net. However, we’ve tested a fair few products over the years, and I suspect that the odds of finding that special product aren’t too high.
To sum up: by all means, buy a moving-coil cartridge. At their best, such designs can sound spellbinding. My advice, though, is don’t try doing it on a tight budget. This is a case where you need a more open wallet.
A cartridge such as the Ortofon MC X30 is great, as long as the partnering phono stage and system are good enough to reveal that. In this case, as in most others, good sound has a price.
MORE:
Our guide to the best cartridges for your budget
How to change the cartridge on your turntable
Best turntables: 9 top record players we've tested and recommend
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