There is quite a bit of unwarranted conjecture on this thread.
Last year I had the pleasure of listening to the same exact album on LP and R2R.
If I recall correctly, the tape deck was a Sonorous Audio ATR 10 RTR, turntable was a Doehmann Helix 1 with Schroder CB 9CB tonearm, cartridge was an Etna (low-output MC), phono stage was by Wadax, and speakers were Tidal Audio's Akira.
Despite that the cartridge was not an MM or MI, the sound of the two formats was exceedingly similar, with the LP perhaps being at the level of a first-generation dub of the tape (if that).
Also, I know a number of well-known album producers and musicians who use Lyra's and other MC cartridges for both their personal listening pleasure as well as evaluating test pressings of upcoming albums.
Neither of the above would be possible if MC cartridges were incapable of sounding like tape (contrary to invictus005's assertions).
Regarding rod and pipe cantilevers, each category can facilitate different construction techniques or shapes, and having a range of options can be useful for cartridge designers (in the context of specific cartridge designs). However, the distinction between rod and pipe cantilevers is by itself largely meaningless.
Boron didn't become popular because beryllium was phased out - they coexisted for years, and during that period the cartridge designer was free to choose whichever one he felt best suited the design that he was developing.
I prototyped with beryllium a few times in the 1980s, but never totally warmed up to the sound. Around the same period I also prototyped with boron, but again with inconclusive results. And ruby / sapphire. And diamond etc.
In the end, for our early cantilevers I settled on a whisker-reinforced aluminum alloy (in rod rather than pipe form).
However, the whiskered aluminum worked best with a coaxial 3-way damper arrangement, which was time-consuming to adjust and sometimes drifted (or was whacked) out of alignment in the field.
Therefore, in the mid-1990s we put more effort into formulating rubber compounds for dampers, and the success of this allowed us to change our cantilevers from whiskered aluminum to boron rod.
One of the keys to a cartridge's sonic personality is the matching of dampers to cantilever - some dampers that work exceedingly well with boron are less good with aluminum or beryllium, some dampers are more oriented to sapphire / diamond cantilevers, yet other dampers are all-rounders that work tolerably well across a range of cantilever shapes and materials (but these may not nail the sound as well as a specifically dialled-in damper(s).
In most MC cartridges the damper is sandwiched / enclosed between the coils and the rear yoke (center yoke in some cases), therefore most third-party MC retips will either not replace the damper, or if they do, it will not have the original formulation / shape.
The Audio-Technica V-M MM cartridge dampers are also of this type.
In most MM / MI cartridges, however, the damper surrounds the cantilever, and is enclosed within replaceable stylus assembly. Therefore, when you replace the stylus of an MM with a product from a third-party retipper (Swing, JICO etc.), you will be getting a new stylus, cantilever and dampers, and presumably the damper will have been chosen to complement the replacement cantilever choice.
Regarding the Top Wing Red Sparrow, I've written a little more about it at the following link:
https://www.audionirvana.org/forum/the-audio-vault/analog-playback/cartridges/76017-interesting-new-...
kind regards, jonathan
Last year I had the pleasure of listening to the same exact album on LP and R2R.
If I recall correctly, the tape deck was a Sonorous Audio ATR 10 RTR, turntable was a Doehmann Helix 1 with Schroder CB 9CB tonearm, cartridge was an Etna (low-output MC), phono stage was by Wadax, and speakers were Tidal Audio's Akira.
Despite that the cartridge was not an MM or MI, the sound of the two formats was exceedingly similar, with the LP perhaps being at the level of a first-generation dub of the tape (if that).
Also, I know a number of well-known album producers and musicians who use Lyra's and other MC cartridges for both their personal listening pleasure as well as evaluating test pressings of upcoming albums.
Neither of the above would be possible if MC cartridges were incapable of sounding like tape (contrary to invictus005's assertions).
Regarding rod and pipe cantilevers, each category can facilitate different construction techniques or shapes, and having a range of options can be useful for cartridge designers (in the context of specific cartridge designs). However, the distinction between rod and pipe cantilevers is by itself largely meaningless.
Boron didn't become popular because beryllium was phased out - they coexisted for years, and during that period the cartridge designer was free to choose whichever one he felt best suited the design that he was developing.
I prototyped with beryllium a few times in the 1980s, but never totally warmed up to the sound. Around the same period I also prototyped with boron, but again with inconclusive results. And ruby / sapphire. And diamond etc.
In the end, for our early cantilevers I settled on a whisker-reinforced aluminum alloy (in rod rather than pipe form).
However, the whiskered aluminum worked best with a coaxial 3-way damper arrangement, which was time-consuming to adjust and sometimes drifted (or was whacked) out of alignment in the field.
Therefore, in the mid-1990s we put more effort into formulating rubber compounds for dampers, and the success of this allowed us to change our cantilevers from whiskered aluminum to boron rod.
One of the keys to a cartridge's sonic personality is the matching of dampers to cantilever - some dampers that work exceedingly well with boron are less good with aluminum or beryllium, some dampers are more oriented to sapphire / diamond cantilevers, yet other dampers are all-rounders that work tolerably well across a range of cantilever shapes and materials (but these may not nail the sound as well as a specifically dialled-in damper(s).
In most MC cartridges the damper is sandwiched / enclosed between the coils and the rear yoke (center yoke in some cases), therefore most third-party MC retips will either not replace the damper, or if they do, it will not have the original formulation / shape.
The Audio-Technica V-M MM cartridge dampers are also of this type.
In most MM / MI cartridges, however, the damper surrounds the cantilever, and is enclosed within replaceable stylus assembly. Therefore, when you replace the stylus of an MM with a product from a third-party retipper (Swing, JICO etc.), you will be getting a new stylus, cantilever and dampers, and presumably the damper will have been chosen to complement the replacement cantilever choice.
Regarding the Top Wing Red Sparrow, I've written a little more about it at the following link:
https://www.audionirvana.org/forum/the-audio-vault/analog-playback/cartridges/76017-interesting-new-...
kind regards, jonathan