Quote Originally Posted by jrhymeammo
So, I will be in a market for a MC cart with medium output. Only one I can find within (somewhat) reasonable price range is by ACE by Benz Micro, not that I can think of one at much higher price. I prefer not to go lower than 0.5mv. Why arent there more cart with 0.6-0.8mv output. Well maybe not 0.6 since the differnce is only about a decibal. Is there something less attractive about the design and its sound quality?
I have an older Pro-Ject table w/earlier version of Pro-Ject 9 tonearm. A salesman at Audio Atlanta who carries Grado, Ortofon and Benz Micro recommended the Ortofon X3-MC and if I wanted to spend more money and get better performance then the Benz ACE. Both would travel well if I moved up to a better table/arm. He advised against the Grados to avoid potential hum problems. From what I've read, there are some sheilding issues w/Grado carts and Rega-type arms, but If you haven't noticed problems w/your Silver then you could probably consider the Grado Sonata in the same price range as the ACE. I know it comes in at least two output versions and I think the lower output version is around 0.5mV.

Can't say much about design and sound quality. I went with a high output mc, but if I eventually upgrade my phono stage, I might try the Benz med. output ACE. Going low output may require a step-up transformer or phono amp beyond what I would probably want to spend.