Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
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.
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Nice description of the kinship of the Ortofon Generations. Not to be a challenge, but I have heard the Vienna, which has a controlled but noticeable Bass Presence compared to the K'b. I perceived the Windfeld as have an increased Tone in comparison to the Vienna, the Windfeld seemed to have underpinned the attractive Vienna. The A90 I have heard on an unfamiliar system and had this in my mind as a Lean Racehorse, but still to my liking. I like Ortofon, these Cart's in their Trickle-Down Technology Guises, meet my needs. The Older TOTR items are proven to myself to be very attractive too, but not being pursued, I have found my level of being contented. |
@edgewear , wow, lay of the defensive stuff. Your Anna has been through the ringer and I would think you would want to know if it was performing normally. Not one review I read of the Anna Diamond mentioned tracking problems. But, I have purchased clinker cartridges before, just not $10,000 ones😬 |
@atmasphere , It was mounted in a Schroder Reference. I did not hear it miss track. Nothing we played was that challenging. Peter himself admits the cartridge can't handle the highest velocities but he also says the cartridge is particularly kind to the grooves playing lacquers repeatedly without hurting them. I should also add there is the factor of buying a dedicated interface making it a system unto itself. Whatever the reason my instinct decided not to go with it. I also had a bad experience with Sao Win's cartridge back in the early 80's but I think I factored that out of my decision making. |
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