Greed! Soon the Chinese will enter the market with knock off's of the classic cartridges. When double blind tests are conducted, anything above $500 tends to be beat by the under $500 price point. Experience, like fifty years of it in the hi end, confirms there is no collation between price and better sound. A last point, set up and the arm tend to rule. I've heard $3K cartridges improperly set up by 'experts' and still the owner raved how better it sounded, until the set up was corrected.
What makes a high $$$ cartridge high $$$?
From what I can tell, not through my own experience yet, there is consensus that going up the price ladder with cartridges pays performance dividends. The range of prices is pretty wide and I am curious what is the central issue in driving cart prices. Is it research and development technology, materials, production costs, market dynamics (luxury pricing), brand value extraction, etc. Maybe it is the same as with amps, speakers, etc., but somehow carts seem different.
Where does the price/performance curve start to flatten $500, $1K, $2K ?
Where does the price/performance curve start to flatten $500, $1K, $2K ?