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.
Thats correct - I heard the first Sussuro and his first Strain Gauge cartridge not long after the Voice had come out. The Paua came out after he visited New Zealand - name comes from our Paua - Maori name for seasnails which is a delicacy down here. |
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@pindac if you are ever in the Boston area (we are 45 minutes North in Southern NH) you are more than welcome to come over and have an extended listen. 😉 |
@pindac, @sksos , It is odd that the cartridges Mr Matsudaira designs and builds cartridges for other companies that are so highly reviewed, the Air Tights in particular, but you hardly hear about his own cartridges. I have many hand made Japanese woodworking tools and the Japanese put have special pride in the tools they sign with there own names and they frequently give the tool it's own name. It is obvious to anyone that uses them that these tools are indeed special. I think this is a cultural trait. So, I was drawn to his own cartridges and that trait was obvious just looking at it in the box. The Signature Platinum is much smaller than it appears in pictures. The logo is perfectly engraved and the finish flawless. All the angles are dead on and the stylus is the smallest I have ever seen and perfectly polished under high power. It is a little Jewel. In the Schroder CB tonearm plugged into a current mode phono stage (6dB more gain than voltage mode) the Platinum Signature is as or more dynamic than any cartridge I have ever used. It's bass is as good as the best 24/192 digital recordings and it's spatial orientation of instruments is uncanny, the spaces between dead quiet. It does everything from 45 rpm Led Zeppelin to old Decca classics with aplomb, a cartridge for all days and all ways. The internet seems to feel that the Signature Gold is "warmer." I have trouble imagining that. Is It tilted towards the low end or the transients softer? It uses the same stylus but in a Duralumin cantilever. All other specifics except the metal used for the body are identical. The Duralumin cantilever is slightly larger in diameter so it is probably just as stiff. Is it warmer because it's Gold and the Platinum is icy silver? I bet if we put the two together there is not much at all between them. Until I use other low impedance cartridges I really have no basis for comparison, but that will change shortly. In the meanwhile I think either Signature would match up beautifully with the Four Point 9 or 11. The 14 might be a bit too heavy for it. I think the Kuzma M with a 4 Point 11 and a MSL Signature would make a wonderful final turntable set up. You could spend a lot more money and do substantially worse! |
Mijo, does your Seti offer both current- and voltage-mode drive? Was wondering how you can know, except by guesstimate, that you are getting "6db" more gain from current-drive vs voltage-drive. Most companies won't list a gain spec for their current mode phono stages, I think because net gain from current output is so dependent upon how the internal impedance of the cartridge interacts with the input impedance of the stage. However, at the output in both cases you do have a voltage, so that's where you could compare the two types of stage in terms of db output. The difference between current- and voltage-drive would be different for every cartridge, in this case. I have signed my tool, too. I call it "Mr Happy". But I refuse to lacquer it. |
