Detachable Head shell or Not?

The problem with this discussion is that it’s often comparing apples and oranges. For a level playing field you’d need a comparison with one cartridge in the same arm with and without the option of detachable headshell. Like the SME 3009, which was originally available with both options. I never owned these, but I’ve made a comparison that could be regarded as sort of ‘next best’. I own an Audiocraft AC-4400, which has the option of interchangeable armpipes. There are various straight armpipes with fixed headshell as well as an S-type armpipe with SME bayonet to accommodate detachable headshells.
So just for the hell of it I made a comparison with one specific cartridge mounted in the straight armpipe as well as in a headshell connected to the S-type armpipe. Of course everything else remained unchanged, from the tonearm cable all the way to the loudspeakers.

I used a Sato Musen Zen Diamond cartridge as Guinea pig. The choice is purely coincidental, but it’s a suitably revealing albeit old MC cartridge (based on the Victor MC-L1000 direct couple but with diamond cantilever). I used the Audiocraft AS-4PL headshell to keep the comparison as ‘level’ as possible.

It may well be my aging ears, but as much as I tried I was unable to detect a discernible audible difference between both options. Direct switching was impossible because I obviously needed some time to chance over the cartridge between both armpipe/ headshell arrangements. To some folks this will likely invalidate the experiment, but nonetheless I would not make too much of a thing about this issue. If it’s flexibility you want, choose a high quality tonearm with detachable headshell option and don’t loose any sleep over it.

Contrary to Raul’s opinion I think very highly of the FR-64/66fx tonearm, but would strongly advise against having it converted to continuous wiring. If anything the very considerable market value of the 66fx will drop like a brick. Changing the internal wiring to silver could make sense though. Depending on the quality of the original wiring there can be an audible sonic benefit and it won’t have a negative impact on the market value.

@best-groove yup, the Zen Diamond is one of those ‘oldies’ that had me convinced that no ‘sea change’ in sonic improvement has occurred in recent years that would justify the ridiculous pricing of current top MC’s.

And with your Pioneer Exclusive P3 even one tonearm is sufficient, by alternating between the straight and S-type armpipes. The very similar tonearm of the PL-70L II turntable was in fact also used to conduct the little comparative investigation with the Zen Diamond that convinced me there’s no decisive sonic advantage to fixed wiring.

Anyone interested in the ‘fixed or not fixed headshell’ discussion should read Ken Kessler’s recent back page column in HiFiNews about this issue. He mentions the multitude of interruptions inside any audio component as argument against making too big a thing of this issue. But he’s an old guy too, so probably unable to hear the sonic differences our ‘transfixed to fixed’ forum members apparently do.

Ah, like exclusive one-off designer handbags? 🥴

@best-groove Agreed. Reasonably priced top cartridges in the current marketplace are in the 5-6k range. Above that price level we are entering ‘trophy for the rich’ territory, which is all about exclusivity, ‘pride’ of ownership and snobbery.
Can’t wait for the first 20k+ cartridge and the accompanying marketing nonsense. Or is it already among us?

@lewm I agree with you 100%, but buying vintage LP’s of audiophile quality in NM or EX condition has recently become a painfully expensive endeavour. Those golden $5-10 days are gone forever. Think Decca SXL, emi ASD, Columbia SAX, rca LSC, mercury SR and the like. Same story with original jazz pressings from blue note, prestige, contemporary and many others. Or original vertigo swirls, pink islands, etcetera.

The $100k turntable & $10k+ cartridge crowd will probably never touch those ‘used’ records, perhaps never knowing these sound much superior to those pristine audiophile reissues they buy. Conversely, I know many fanatical collectors of these vintage pressings who don’t care about audiophile sound and would raise their eyebrows at the idea of spending even 1000 bucks on a ‘needle’.

Apparently the ‘trophies for the rich’ crowd finally ‘discovered’ those vintage pressings, probably because their prices had slowly and steadily reached their snob appeal level. From that moment on prices of original pressings have rapidly gone completely off the charts and still rising, even without the ‘hot stamper’ marketing nonsense. So for newbies the used record market is not nearly as attractive as it was 10 or more years ago.