The Best Moving Magnet Cartridges

A moving magnet cartridge moves a tiny magnet between fixed coils, which is why it makes about ten times the voltage of a moving coil and why the stylus can usually be replaced without replacing the cartridge. Those two properties — high output and a serviceable stylus — are the reason almost every turntable sold ships with one.

We rank the type on its own here rather than by price bracket, because the decision a reader actually faces is a type decision first: if your phono stage is MM-only, as every stage in the under-$100 bracket is, then this is the complete list of what you can fit. The price-bracket pages are under $200 and under $1,000, and both of them mix in designs that are not moving magnet at all.

Channel separation, and why it is the ranking spec

Separation is how much of the left channel leaks into the right. It is published in dB at 1 kHz by every maker here, which makes it the one figure on this page that is genuinely comparable across brands — unlike frequency response, where Audio-Technica publishes 20–27,000 Hz with no tolerance at all and Ortofon publishes 20 Hz–20 kHz at +2 / −0 dB. A range with no tolerance cannot be set beside a range with one.

Note what the separation column does to the obvious price ordering. The VM740ML publishes 28 dB and the 2M Bronze publishes 26 dB, so on this figure Audio-Technica’s cheaper cartridge is ahead of Ortofon’s. The Bronze stays second because of its tolerance discipline: +2 / −0 dB across the band and 1 dB channel balance are figures Audio-Technica does not publish in any comparable form.

The stylus profile is the other half, and it is about contact area

A groove is cut by a chisel-shaped stylus and played back by a round-ish one, and the mismatch is what profile geometry exists to reduce. The ranking of shapes here, cheapest to most expensive, is bonded elliptical, nude elliptical, Fine Line, MicroLine and Shibata. The published tip radii tell you why: the 2M Blue’s elliptical diamond is r/R 8/18 µm, the Bronze’s Fine Line is r/R 8/40 µm — same minor radius, more than twice the major one, which spreads the same force over a longer contact patch along the groove wall.

Two practical consequences. A longer contact patch reads more of the high-frequency information cut into the groove wall, and it concentrates less pressure per unit area, which is the mechanism behind the claim that better profiles are gentler on records. And “nude” versus “bonded” is a real distinction: a nude diamond is a whole diamond mounted directly, a bonded one is a diamond tip glued to a metal shank, and the bonded assembly weighs more at the end of the cantilever. Both cartridges at the bottom of this page are bonded; everything from rank four up is nude.

The 2M Bronze and the 2M Black publish identical specifications

This is the single most useful thing on this page and it is Ortofon’s own data. The 2M Bronze and the 2M Black publish the same coil system, the same frequency response (20 Hz–20 kHz, +2 / −0 dB), the same 26 dB separation, the same 1 dB channel balance, the same 5 mV output, the same 80 µm tracking ability, the same 22 µm/mN compliance, the same 1.2 kΩ and 630 mH coil figures, the same 1.4–1.7 g tracking force and the same 7.2 g weight.

The only published difference is the diamond: nude Fine Line at r/R 8/40 µm on the Bronze, nude Shibata at r/R 6/50 µm on the Black. That is a real difference and it is the difference you are paying for — but it is the only one Ortofon states, and the Black is roughly twice the Bronze. We rank the Bronze second and leave the Black off this page entirely, because the under-$1,000 bracket already ranks it with the same arithmetic. If you want the Shibata geometry for less, the VM750SH on top of this page has it, publishes more separation, and takes a replacement stylus.

Replaceable styli change the maths completely

Every Audio-Technica VM cartridge on this page publishes a replacement stylus part number — AT-VMN95E, AT-VMN95ML, VMN40ML, VMN50SH — and within the VM95 range the whole stylus family fits one body. That means a later upgrade from elliptical to MicroLinear costs a stylus, not a cartridge, and it means a worn stylus is a consumable rather than a write-off.

The Ortofon 2M series is also stylus-replaceable up the range, and the Nagaoka MP-110 is the one here where the upgrade path is least clear from Nagaoka’s own page. Its virtues are elsewhere: 5 mV output at a modest 6.5 g weight, a published 1.5 dB channel balance, and a 1.5–2.0 g tracking range that suits a heavier arm. How long a stylus lasts is the other side of this: the replacement interval is the real running cost of a turntable, and it is the reason a replaceable stylus is worth more than a spec sheet suggests.

What we are not ranking here, and why

Three cartridges in our registry are left off this page on type grounds, not quality grounds. The Grado Prestige Green4 is a moving-iron design and the AT-OC9XEN, AT-OC9XML and Denon DL-103 are moving coil — they need a phono stage with an MC input and, in the DL-103’s case, a lot of gain. The AT-VM95EN/H is a VM95 supplied pre-mounted on an AT-HS6 headshell, which makes it a fitting convenience rather than a separate design; it is ranked in the under-$200 bracket.

If your deck has a removable headshell and you would rather not align anything, that pre-mounted option is the easier buy and it is the same cartridge body. Whether a cartridge fits your arm at all is the question to settle before any of this.