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What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

I believe that a cartridge and a speaker, by far, contribute the most to SQ.

The two transducers in a system.

I bit the bulllet and bought a Lyra Atlas SL for $13K for my Woodsong Garrard 301 with Triplanar SE arm. I use a full function Atma-Sphere MP-1 preamp. My $60K front end. It is certainly, by far, the best I have owned. I read so many comments exclaiming that Lyra as among the best. I had to wait 6 months to get it. But the improvement over my excellent $3K Mayijima Shilabi was spectacular-putting it mildly.

I recently heard a demo of much more pricy system using a $25K cartridge. Seemed to be the most expensive cartridge made. Don’t recall the name.

For sure, the amount of detail was something I never heard. To hear a timpani sound like the real thing was incredible. And so much more! 
This got me thinking of what could be possible with a different kind of cartridge than a moving coil. That is, a moving iron.

I have heard so much about the late Decca London Reference. A MI and a very different take from a MC. Could it be better? The World’s Best? No longer made.

However Grado has been making MI cartridges for decades. Even though they hold the patent for the MC. Recently, Grado came out with their assault on “The World’s Best”. At least their best effort. At $12K the Epoch 3. I bought one and have been using it now for about two weeks replacing my Lyra. There is no question that the Atlas SL is a fabulous cartridge. But the Epoch is even better. Overall, it’s SQ is the closest to real I have heard. To begin, putting the stylus down on the run in grove there is dead silence. As well as the groves between cuts. This silence is indicative of the purity of the music content. Everything I have read about it is true. IME, the comment of one reviewer, “The World’s Best”, may be true.
 

 

mglik

Showing 4 responses by cd318

cd318
2,636 posts
 

@inna

The best cartridge in the world is no cartridge. It is reel to reel deck playing tapes.

However, if true regarding that Grado, it may prove that MC is a flawed design and has always been. That’s what some have kept saying for ages.

 

 

Nice.

I tend to feel the same way about Moving Coil designs.

Just too many compromises.

 

As an aside, it might be worth asking whether the ’world’s best cartridge’ would also happen to be the world’s best tracking cartridge?

 

 

cd318
2,636 posts
 

Shure V15 - the best cartridges of all time?

"Moving coil fans must be gritting their teeth at the audacious title that suggests the V15 might be the best cartridge series of all time.

Sure, there are more expensive cartridges, and moving coil fans are often steadfast in their views that moving magnet just will not cut it.

But the Shure V15, in terms of its popularity, affordability, cult status and brilliant (affordable) sound is right up there.

A related example might be calling the Technics SL-1200 one of the best turntables of all time – not the highest end turntable, by any means, but a solid piece of machinery that combines excellent sound with affordability."

 

 

I wonder what serious broadcasters use these days now that Shure have stopped cartridge production?


http://best-turntables.com/shure-v15-series-explained/

cd318
2,636 posts
 

@dover 

 

"But the apex of lunacy arrived when he advertised a "real" Dynavector Karat Nova 13D here on audiogon with the cartridge mounted in the unique headshell upside down."

 


it's nice to see credit still being given where its due.

When it comes to audio ingenuity often goes hand in hand with innovation.

 

Unfortunately, most of the time, not always successfully.

 

@mikelavigne 

i simply do not see the value to me in this thread.

 

Well, these 'what's best' questions have never once led to a definitive answer in my opinion.

If only they did, wouldn't life be so much simpler?

I remember back in the day when there were only 3 turntables to consider, only 3 amps to bother with, and just half a dozen speakers.

 

Or so I was led to believe, until eventually it all turned out to be opiniated rubbish of course.

cd318
2,636 posts
 

@atmasphere 

Well... The LP has continued to advance as well. QRP (Acoustic Sounds) sorted out that vibration was the primary cause of surface noise in LPs and so installed damping to reduce it- and makes vastly quieter LPs as a result, rivaling the noise floor of Redbook in that the electronics become the noise floor rather than the LP itself.

 

That might well be the case but there's absolutely no denying that there were some fabulous sounding LPs made back as far as at least the 1950s.

The best sound that I have ever heard came from one such LP.

It had that spooky 'Is it real?' soundstage that I've yet to hear from any digital.

 

I would love to see digital finally fulfill its potential on commercial releases, especially regarding dynamic range and transference of classic analogue masters etc, but I'm resigned to the fact that market forces will never allow such a thing to happen.

The demand for sonic excellence just isn't there, and I suspect the suppliers have no stomach for putting out reference quality digital recordings of vintage material out there either.

Why would they, when they can continue to milk that cow indefinitely?

 

For me, as things stand, digital only really displays its forte with formats such as audiobooks where it reigns supreme.

Everywhere else it's only merely acceptable.

 

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