This is a wonderful discussion. I love all the ideas and perspectives. Like many of you, I have a lot of cartridges. $50, $500, $3000, $5000, and $10,000 ones. My favorite ones are an Ortofon 2M SE Mono (the mono version of the Black), and a SoundSmith Hyperion MkII. Why do I like the SE mono better than other mono mc ones costing 5-10x more? I dunno. Why do I like the Hyperion better than my Winfeld (previous favorite) or the Atlas. I dunno. These are not rational preferences. But I know what I like. And although I agree with Raul that our standard should be live music, it is not easy to do an A-B against live music is it? So, what I use as a standard is DSD, which is measurably more accurate than any analog system. I know this to be true. Why do I like to listen to my records and my less perfect analog cartridges, arms, turntables, phonostages and so on better? I dunno. But I know what I like.
