ABSTRACT
Moving-coil cartridges are generally accepted to have a better tracking performance than moving-magnet cartridges because the moving element is a set of lightweight coils rather than a magnet which is inevitably made of a relatively dense alloy. There are two ways to achieve the high gains required for these low-output cartridges. In the most common method a standard MM input stage, with RIAA equalisation, can be switched to either accept an MC input directly or the output of a specialised MC input stage which gives the extra gain needed; this may be either a step-up transformer or an amplifier configured to give low noise with very low source resistances. The high cost of transformers means that there is a strong incentive to come up with an electronic solution to the amplification problem. A final constraint on the attenuator is the need for low output impedances so the succeeding MM input stage can give a good noise performance.
