I did a cartridge comparison between a Shure M91ed, ADC1050e, Ortofon OM5, Denon DL160homc, AT 3600L, AT 440mla, and the AT120e. I recorded Dire Straits Money for Nothing on my Teac cd deck, off my Denon DP 55K turntable, through my Yamaha R-S700 receiver. I gave the cd to people at work and they took it out to their cars and picked the one they liked to best. Out of 8 people, 3 picked the Shure M91d, and 5 said the last one had more punch and that's the one they liked best. So the AT120e won the car shootout. That's a 10 year old heavily use AT120e.
Another cartridge shootout
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Crab33
Super Member
Interesting experiment, although I'm not sure a car stereo is a good system in which to assess a Hi-Fi cartridge. My guess is people liked the M91ED for the bass. And it doesn't surprise me that the AT120E was so popular - it is very punchy, which would come across well in such a system. Of course, the AT-440MLa is an upgrade from the AT120E but in my experience the 120E stylus is more dynamic. As I see it, the benefit of the 440MLa is it offers more refinement plus you get the excellent tracking of the MicroLine stylus - this may have not been evident in the experiment.
