I've been lucky enough to try the MMC cartridge range from MMC 2 to 5 and was blown away.

Has anyone else expeienced the difference?

The MMC 5 sounded pretty good, played on basic 80's vinyl but when I heard the MMC2 - woooooooo - what a difference 

By the way is there an MMC1

Additionally is there really any difference on the type of deck it's played through - I listened to all the Beograms i.e. 3000, 3300, 4500, 5500 etc and didn't notice anything, it really was the cartridge for me.........

Cheers

    

Yes - there is a MMC1

The beograms you mention are all mechanically identical with only cosmetic changes so they are likely to all sound about the same.

There are differences in the cartridges though in my view they all share a certain character. The MMC1 was a very similar cartridge to the MMC2 but was supposed to have a slightly longer and narrower footprint. I have heard them back to back and confess that I could not distinguish them - maybe I had a good MMC2 and only a fair MMC1 though!

There is supposed to be a difference through decks though all the ones you mention are the same basic deck. Tangential arms are better for line contact styluses in theory though in practice radial arms seem to do a perfectly good job. After that it is more about the motor unit and the  support for the record. Beograms suffer a little here as the platters are not the best damped. Probably the best deck for the MMC2 is the 8002 though the technical figures would suggest otherwise! 

So I may be stating the obvious but, having listened to very average record decks and average moving coil cartridges from the 80's (Ortofon erc) I wandered what the big deal was until..........

I fired up an MMC 2 on my Beogram 4500 and was quite knocked back by it's clarity but maybe that was down to the quality of the Penta's............

But as stated earlier, the difference from an MMC5 to MMC2 is amazing.......

Long live V I N YL !!!!  

nikeyboy1212:

So I may be stating the obvious but, having listened to very average record decks and average moving coil cartridges from the 80's (Ortofon erc) I wandered what the big deal was until..........

I fired up an MMC 2 on my Beogram 4500 and was quite knocked back by it's clarity but maybe that was down to the quality of the Penta's............

But as stated earlier, the difference from an MMC5 to MMC2 is amazing.......

Long live V I N YL !!!!  

I had a relatively inexpensive record deck bought from Riccher Sounds about 15 years ago. Not bottom of the range but not high-end  I seldom played vinyl because I had bought into the idea that CD was way better, based on back to back comparisons on my system there was no room for doubt.

Last year I bought a Beocenter 7000 with a relatively modest MMC 20E attached which is some way below the quality of your system and I was blown away by the quality when playing vinyl, it is not indistinguishable from CD as the sound has a slightly different character (less harsh?) but I wouldn't like to say which is 'better'.

I have been happily building my collection via car boot sales. The quality is a bit iffy at times with maybe 1/3 of what I buy not being worth keeping but as prices range fron 10p to £1 a disc it isn't worth getting upset about. After many years of scarely listening to vinyl is is great to catch up!

Simon