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.
Dear @mikelavigne : " whether you believe in a tubed power supply or a solid state power supply is not the issue here . " Well, you was who posted about before my post and that's why I still ask on that regards.
" (at 1/3rd to 1/6th the price) " Mike wht's the DaVa Refrence retail price? and @larryi and due that you already listen to it : do you know the price tag for the Audio Note? Thank's in advance for both of you.
R. |
ok, maybe you have not understood my answers about the power supply for the DaVa cartridge.🙄 here is the messgae the DaVa builder, Darius, sent me in January regarding the power supply choices. i went with the 1500 euro choice. plus 6000 euro for the cartridge, plus, as i recall, 400 euro for shipping,
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On the Grado Epoch 3... How the hell does a $13K cartridge have an elliptical stylus? At least give me a microline or similar. Can you imagine shelling 13K for a cart and hearing IGD? That would hurt. On topic, there is no best cartridge, like there is not best speaker. Depends on one's system and ears. At the ultra high end cartridge level, one should expect very wide channel separation (at least 35dB plus), superb tracking and very wide frequency response at the very least. The OP's Atlas has that. It's all personal preference at any level, but one wouldn't expect a spherical, conical, or elliptical stylus on a cartridge at the uber high level. |
It all depends on how you look at it. There are many fine sounding cartridges out there but there are certain criteria that to my way of thinking have to be met before considering the sonic characteristics of a cartridge. The first and most important is tracking ability. If a cartridge can not track everything I throw at it it is worthless to me. A cartridge has to track better than 80um or I am not interested. Thus, the Etsuro Gold is not a cartridge I would ever look at and I have just spent $35,000 on cartridges meaning it is not a financial issue. From a technical perspective the new MC Diamond is going to be a more accurate performer and it can handle 80 um. Technology trumps artisanship when it comes to phonograph cartridges but, you have to understand the Japanese mentality when it comes to issues like cutting blades and phonograph cartridges which are endowed with the unique spirit of their creator. It is spiritual. The next important issue is the stylus. It has to be a fine line design of the highest quality. Each type of stylus has significant variations in quality even within the same manufacturer. I am beginning to think from what I have seen so far is that the styluses of the more expensive cartridges are hand selected. The better styluses with a larger contact patch are the ones that are really quiet because they glide over small imperfections other styluses with smaller contact patches fall into. What I find more interesting is how much these cartridges actually sound alike than different. You would have to be out of your mind to buy a Decca cartridge. They are not very popular for a good reason. There is only one accurate. Everything else is not, euphonic or not. |
Dear @mikelavigne : I think that my misunderstood came from what you posted:
" the tubed power supply sounds better than a solid state power supply " Than's for your last post where appeared not one but 3 different tube power suplies with no SS one.
Btw, " projects lots of energy and life. " : Obviously that exist different levels but those DaVa characteristics you named are shared by cantilever-less cartridge designs as the Ikeda REX9 and others. There is no doubt that cartridge field coil design means a " different " quality level than other cartridge design principles ( motor. ) but the DaVa comes with 2 different " principles ": catilever-less and field coil. How much for one and how much of that quality for the other. Yes, at the ends only is important its overall quality level but ??.... The field coil principle can't recovery what the DaVa design cantilever-less can't pick-up from the LP grooves due that it is not ( no one cantilever-less is. ) good tracker.
Taking in count those facts could be interesting that an Audio Note I/O LOMC owner that along owns the I/O field coil could chime here on it because both cartridges are the same but the generator variable.
R.
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