I have heard rumours that the bearings in some tonearms disintegrate due to the vibrations from a moving coil cartridge. Is this true?
No. “Many moving coil cartridges (MCs) tend to have lower compliance figures than moving magnet cartridges (MMs), and a few MCs are deliberately designed to dump a lot of mechanical energy into the tonearm. But even something like the Deccas will put a lot of energy into the tonearm, and these are certainly not MCs. In any case, if the tonearm suffers from loose bearings or bearing rattle, the tonearm will not be able to control the mechanical energy from the cartridge properly, and the result will sonically not be as good as it would be in a tonearm with a better bearing system.” Note that the above is NOT the same thing as disintegrating bearings. Unless the bearings were cracked to begin with, the tonearm should remain in good health regardless of the type of cartridge used). However, it IS possible to create a flat spot on a bearing through user abuse. This usually occurs when the user (most likely while installing or adjusting a cartridge) puts too much stress on a gimballed-beari
