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Thank you @USER! I’d love to measure a Karat, but they’re so pricey :facepalm:

I’m not sure that you can really predict wear based on distortion by comparing cartridges by different manufacturers. Certain MC’s just seem to have higher distortion in general.

Dynavector DV-50A This is an NOS cartridge that I acquired a couple weeks back. It's a good thing it has a strong stylus protector, as one of the mounting screws had come slightly loose in shipping and it was rattling around when I opened the box :) Not bad at all! It sounds quite nice.

The MP-200 sounds good at both loadings. I didn't listen to the MP-500 at 34k due to the obvious downward slope in the response. I'll have to work on the SRA stuff. The MP-200 was very slightly tail down, while the MP-500 was slightly tail up, possibly due to small manufacturing variations in...

Here is the MP-200 at 34k Ω. I'm guessing somewhere around 40k would be optimal. Normalized version of the graph: MP-500 at the same loading (not sure what's up with the LCH 2H distortion. It seems to randomly go pretty high on some tests with this cartridge)

Blue Jeans LC-1 interconnect and Sutherland phono stage that doesn’t have added capacitance

Nagaoka MP-200 I was hoping that this one would be as flat as the MP-500, but alas, it isn't so. I'll have to do a test with lower capacitance, but I doubt it will affect much. Still a nice sounding cartridge :) EDIT: It does look like it prefers less capacitance!

Denon DL-103 This one I purchased new in 2020. It shouldn't have more than 30 or so hours of use, I believe. I wonder what's behind the glitch at ~11k. It is repeatable.

Shure V15 Type III MR Looks pretty flat :)

I have a feeling that at least some of that may have to do with the specific stylus example I have. It may not have been kept in the best environmental conditions in Japan. At some point, I will pick up an NOS EPS-205EX and measure it. Additionally, the EPC-205C-IIL model is very low...

Technics EPC-205C-IIL Original stylus, unknown hours of use, cantilever slightly off-center: JICO SAS with very little use, secured with Blu-Tack, as without it is slightly loose:

Good idea! I have the DB Systems loading plug kit, so I can do that.

Thanks for the info! It was sold as original and is, as far as I can tell. I read somewhere that these old Empire styli didn't always hold up so well.

Empire 2000T I came across this cartridge at a thrift shop a while back, sans intact stylus. I realized that one online shop still stocks original styli, so I ordered one from Europe. The results are fairly disappointing: a downward slope starting at about 1.5 kHz, reaching -2 dB at 5 kHz and...

Thanks for posting your results! Very interesting. I would also love to know what is really causing these fairly drastic differences. I am a bit curious to measure an MP-200 as well, but the idea of spending ~$300 on a cartridge with a 0.4 x 0.7 elliptical stylus isn’t too enticing to me :)

Nagaoka MP-500 I know that this one has been long awaited! With the yen so low, I decided to finally purchase one through CDJapan last month. According to the Hi-Fi News review of this cartridge, "The flagship of Nagaoka's 'Moving Permalloy' range can trace its lineage back to ADC's 10E...

Whoops...that is where I actually meant to post it :facepalm:

Nagaoka MP-500 I know that this one has been long awaited! With the yen so low, I decided to finally purchase one through CDJapan last month. According to the Hi-Fi News review of this cartridge, "The flagship of Nagaoka's 'Moving Permalloy' range can trace its lineage back to ADC's 10E...

My 740ML shows a much more pronounced rise at 10k. I wonder if there's just more capacitance that I thought:

I am wondering how you are getting such a relatively flat response! It looks more like what I would expect loaded at 36K, or from a VM95ML.