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.
The quantor ''all'' is not a name with reference, Its function is to express generality. The question can only be answered with refrence to the number of carts each person owns. Aka with ''numerical quantifier '' . ,So ''the best of my 4 samples IS'...'. Or (Raul) ''the best of my 100 samples Is''. But to know which of ''all 'ever produced'' which ''all'' as universal quantifier mply is silly question. is |
The Hell it’s a silly question. @mikelavigne Mike has told us about the DaVa and Etsuro Gold cartridges and why he values them above all others he has tried. If I value liveliness, I buy the DaVa. If I value refinement, I buy Etsuro. @atmasphere Ralph has done the public service of giving us insight into Raul’s error, instead of taking the easy way out. @lewm Lew has contributed staid common sense informed by expertise. @mulveling, the noted Koetsu connoisseur, corrects misunderstandings about Koetsu. @mglik tells us why he likes the Grado Epoch with Quads. To name just five. As long as we have real experts addressing real issues of interest to them, no thread is silly. We can just thank goodness that they (experts) bother.
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A predictable outcome for a thread entitled as it is. Among the very few who can purchase the most expensive cartridges, there will still be the same phenomenon we see in lower end contests: people advocate for what they know about. I have eight cartridges in the 3-5k range. I'm happy to push them as being worthy of consideration, but to do so involves considerations of the system they get plugged into, and it all becomes rather meaningless. If I could afford an SS strain gauge, a DS Audio optical, or an AT tip-sensing cartridge, I'm sure I would learn about the deficiencies of my other components! Since I cannot, I must make do with what I have, and honestly, I'm not disappointed in any way. I know now that my ears cannot hear the refinements that some claim. So I know what is the best cartridge in my world. And really, can anyone say they know what is best in anyone else's world? |
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? |
Dear @atmasphere @mikelavigne : I think that you that are an experienced gentleman are losting the overall R2 subject and seen not the forest but only one tree.
Look, when I posted on the Studer behavior I started my post saying :
"" There are several problems with R2R units.....""
Specs are only a " tree ", print-out, speed stability, quality of the magnetic tape, magnetic lost its characteristics over time and tapes could develops ( even from new. ) " drops ", it needs eq., adds noise to the signal and more important what’s recorded on the tape are not zeros and ones that are totally immunes to all those R2R drawbacks for analog signal along that studio digital recorder has different design oriented for digital.
In the other side and talking of that specs " tree " in those old times the Studer R2R mike owns were not designed for home use by audiophiles but to be used by recording studios and Studer was not the only R2R with the quality levels for that kind of job because were deep quality competition with true challenges for every R2R manufacture. So the specs Studer gaves to the recording studios were the best they achieved on those times to competes against other manufacturer machines. That was the overall context on that Studer issue. Ralph, I appreciated that this time you posted with a good attitude and not trying to hit me and that’s why I give my answer. Probably those mike’s Studer performs a little better but even that is not a today reference and cant compete in any room/system with what I posted: reference is the digital medium other than live MUSIC.
I gave evidences about as the D2D LP recordings against the same LP recorded in the same session trhough R2R: nigth and day difference and we have to remember the " today " MoFi controversy in his one step recordings.
Not even you can be against those kind of evidences and I know you are not. Obviously that stupid audiophiles are around all the audio world.
Btw, look the Nakamichi 1000 ZXL review and its measured specs ( I still own the 700 ZXL, way similar quality performance. ), really nice for a vintage cassette tape deck:
http://www.hifi-classic.net/review/nakamichi-1000zxl-321.html I would like to read the Studer Mike’s measurements. R. |
