MOVING MAGNET VS MOVING COIL WHICH CARTRIDGE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Which type of phono cartridge should you buy?

- 

Your record player is made up of three main parts. There is the deck itself, which is responsible for spinning the disc and providing the home for the tonearm and cartridge. It's the cartridge that we are going to focus on here. This is the part that actually touches the record groove and generates the electrical signal that subsequently becomes the music you hear out of your speakers.

How cartridges work

A cartridge is essentially an electromechanical device. Let's go back to some GCSE physics. If you move a magnet near a wire then current is generated in that wire. It sounds so simple, but that physics principle forms the basis of how microphones, speaker drive units and phono cartridges all work.

The main parts of a cartridge are its body, the cantilever which has the stylus tip at one end, a thin coil of wire and a permanent magnet. There is also the suspension that allows the cantilever to pivot as the stylus tip tracks the bumps in the record groove. At the other end of the cantilever you will find either the coil of wire or magnet depending on the design.

The names say it all, really. In a moving-magnet type cartridge, it is the magnet that is fixed to the cantilever; it moves while the coil of wire is fixed in place. The positions are reversed in a moving-coil design. What difference does this change of roles make, given that the electrical music signal is generated in both cases?