Yes, but our own auditory equipment is deteriorating daily. I'm with @mulveling on this - use your best until you discover something better.
Do You Play Or Save Your Best Cartridges
I suspect I am like many here, I have a small collection of cartridges. Until recently I would keep a casual playing cartridge set up and I would save my "good" cartridges for evening listening sessions where I am focusing on listening to music at the listening chair. I always had a casual cartridge mounted on an arm, maybe an Audio Technica OC9 III or something along those lines. These days its either an Ortofon MC3000 II or MC5000.
Earlier this year I finally decided to use the DAC in my Trinov pre amp, and this involved getting a subscription to Roon, and hardwiring the computer and preamp to the router with CAT 6 ethernet cable. The sound is remarkably good, to the point where this can easily be my casual listening format.
I almost wonder if its necessary to have a casual cartridge. Or should I just play my best ones as often as I want and bite the bullet and know I am getting a new diamond fitted every few years.
Anyone else go through this kind of decision process?
Showing 7 responses by terry9
@grislybutter "what does a 10,000 dollar cartridge do better than a $1,000 one?" Absolutely nothing unless you have a comparable turntable and a comparable tonearm. If you do have these, you get smoother, clearer, more defined, more delicate, more refined sound. Nothing much. |
@grislybutter "I guess the rest of the setup would be just as expensive" Unless you DIY. I like to budget for something pretty good, like a 10-20k turntable or a 5k tonearm, and see what I can do with that money. That’s led me to an air bearing TT with a very stiff air cushion in all three dimensions, and a superbly isolated motor which I may patent. That took me 3 years. Of fun. Then I did the tonearm, again air bearing, linear tracker, another 3 years. I am currently experimenting with wands - I’ve had a sapphire tube on hold for 2 years because I have some useful thoughts on resonance control with a lightweight wand. So far, so good. I can adjust tangentiality (LT analogue of overhang) on-the-fly to 5 microns. VTA adjusts repeatably to 2 minutes of arc, azimuth also 2 minutes of arc. The only ’off-the-fly’ adjustment is VTF, which is adjustable to 10 mg. When you have that much adjustability, you can get the most from a cartridge, and quite a lot it is, if the Mayajima and Koetsu are anything to go by. I’m fabricating a wand now for a Grado Lineage, we’ll see how that goes. I think DIY is better than buying. It’s certainly a lot more fun. DIY forever!! |
@grislybutter You may surprise yourself. You don't need to do everything yourself - I sure don't. I buy off-the-shelf whenever I can. Prefer to just design and assemble, but sometimes a craftsman can't think of how to do it, or is too expensive. Why not try something easy? Like a cartridge? (joke). |
Heretic! Not that I've ever had one - what are they these days, 20k? And then there's the 25 years+ of aging ... About precision, it means you can adjust by ear to whatever sounds best. No-one, not even a Grado, can align a stylus to a cartridge body to within a few minutes of arc. And those are the sort of adjustments which I sometimes make, to allow for different records. |