MY SONIC LAB Cartridges

tablejockey brings up a very interesting point. Why is a multi kilobuck cartridge using a cheap aluminum cantilever? One could ask another question, what does one really get for one’s money when you buy a multi kilobuck cartridge? I don’t believe that the sum of the parts of any of the cartridges one could name will add to but a mere fraction of the price asked. 

Irrelevant - the Hyoereminent uses a Duraluminum cantilever.
Duraluminum is quite different to aluminium - see my above post.

At least with the Mysoniclab you are getting the original cartridge designed by the guy that oem's many of the megabuck alternatives.
it has ultralow impedance with reasonable output, compared to other designs - this has significant advantages in transmitting the signal to the phono without loss of information and distortion. There is years of research gone into his designs.

Duraluminum is an outdated marketing term for.....wait for it.........aluminum. I worked in the cycling manufacturing industry years back and learned a few things about aluminum pedigree.

Wrong.

Duraluminum is an ALLOY of aluminium, copper, manganese, magnesium, iron and silicon. It is NOT aluminium.
Duraluminum is lighter but harder than steel, its mechanical properties are quite different to aluminium.

I hope the other things you learnt during your employment in the cycling manufacturing industry were founded on fact.

I find that the three or four of my 20 or so cartridges that I like the best tend to sound quite the same to me if I were to close my eyes. And I like to think that this is because I am drawn to their neutrality more than anything else. In other words they do everything right and the result is they are going toward a central character that I seem to prefer.Oddly enough, two of these are MC, one is an MM, and one of these is an MI cartridge. 

If you cant hear significant differences between MC & MM cartridges you must be deaf. If you think that your favourite cartrdiges do everything right - you must have low standards. There are no cartridges that do everything right regardless of price - every design is a subject to the designers own aspirations or goals and what compromises are acceptable to the designer in order to achieve their particular goals.

It’s still aluminum. Duralumin for a bike frame was considered...meh

Wrong again.
duraluminum is an alloy - a composition of aluminium and other elements.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alloy

Why do you think a material not used in bicycle frames should not be used in a phono cartridge - do you put treacle in your car - its runny just like oil ??

@edgewear

I have only heard the MSL & Airtight.
My impression is the MSL tends to sound more precise versus the Airthight which is little warmer in the midrange. Personally whilst others describe the Air Tights as more musical, romantic - I found them to be a little muddled through the midband. Of those two brands I would go Mysonic every time. I think some folk who have "hifi systems" prefer added warmth to flesh out what is missing from their system.

I think what happens is that as Matsudaira's development continues you get trickle down to the OEMs. I suspect that the OEM's have a say in how their versions are voiced. You have to remember that all of these businesses - Mysonic, Air Tight, Techdas etc - are artisanal and they will be wanting a voicing that suits their own products that they either manufacture or distribute.

At each price point they are similar in performance, but my attitude is why buy the OEM when you can buy the original. The designers own brand, Mysonic, will represent best the designers goals at each price point in my view.

@edgewear

At each pricepoint the differences are small, so if you get a deal on a particular brand you are getting value for money.

I like to think the AC-6 combines the best of both ’worlds’. Just kiddin’ of course, but it’s definitely a highly ’neutral’ (or ’balanced’ if you prefer) cartridge with an incredibly dynamic presentation. 

That describes MSL perfectly. From that description the AC-6 is closer to the original MSL than the Air Tight. I know one very high end TT manufacturer ( who hates direct drive ) whose reference is the MSL Platinum - the dynamics are why he uses it for personal listening.

@nandric 

I note that you are very invested in philosophy, logic and reason.

I was wondering what thoughts you might have to explain why some folk sincerely believe they know what a product sounds like without ever having heard it, nor the system in which the proposed purchase is to be used.

@nandric
"some folk" in my post above is not Lew.
It is others who post definitive statements on products that they have never heard.