Best MM?

I have an Ortofon Winfield.....I know the Black is very good.....I'd take a closer look at Soundsmith.

@orpheus10

I was born in the 70s, so i missed that Shure and Empire, but re-discovered the best vintage MM/MI cartridges not so long ago after trying multi thousand MCs.

Please look at this Stanton catalog, download it here

Stanton 881s, 881s mkII, 980, 981 and finally CS-100 WOS this is all you need to know about Stanton, the rest is just crap. You can’t go wrong with any of these models, but prepare to pay $400-1000 for any of them in New Old Stock condition nowadays. Amazing MM cartridges with Stereohedron nude diamonds (one of the best stylus profile ever made).

The Pickering models from XSV-3000 and higher numbers also comes with Stereohedron diamonds, same as Stanton, also amazing cartridges, same price range.

All of them designed by Walter O. Stanton who passed away in 2001.

He sold the company long time ago, it’s called now The Stanton Groud and only manufacture cheap gear and heap carts for professional market (djs and radiostations). No more Stereohedrom styli or anything good from that company under new ownerships.  

Why people are paying so much for rare Stanton/Pickering top models from the late 70s and early 80s? Because they are superb!

Orpheus,  The best of the Stantons/Pickerings (which are really analogous to each other) are from the 70s and perhaps 80s.  We had nothing like them in the 50s, for sure.  Stereo came in only in the late 50s and didn't take over until the mid-60s.  You are making these cartridges older than they really are.  I agree with Chakster: Stanton 881S, 980/981LZS, 980/981HZS, and 100WS, and probably the analogous Pickering series, from XVS3000 through XVS7500, are the best of that bunch and very competitive still today, with anything.  

Chakster, and Lewm, that catalog confirms some things I stated awhile back about jukeboxes. It said the Stanton cartridges were made especially for broadcast and recording professionals. Jukeboxes that went into the lounges in the early 60's were installed by professionals.

Some people distinguish "high end" by the names of the components, I distinguish high end by the sound that I hear. During the early 60's, the record you punched on the jukebox could be seen playing through the front glass; it was a 45, and I saw a Stanton Cartridge with a brush on the front end playing the record. Every thing in those jukeboxes was about as high end as you could get at that time, including the tube electronics, and speakers. That was because the sound of the music emanating from them kept the quarters rolling in big time; they made a lot of money; enough for gangsters to fight over.

I have an excellent audio memory, and I demand that my cartridge reproduce some of the "nuances" I heard from records I played at that time. One of those records was "Blue Funk" by Ray Charles and Milt Jackson; this tune has nuances that only the very best rigs can reproduce, and the jukeboxes I fed quarters certainly reproduced those nuances.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHold6ylvEM


All of the artists on that record are the very best jazz masters of that time, including Ray Charles, who is known for everything except jazz.

Check "Skeeter Best" on guitar, beginning at 6:01; between 6:50 all the way to the end is where it really gets "funky"; those nuances are what I demand of a cartridge; but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Music is what it's all about.
           

Time marches on, and so does progress; a lounge where a jukebox sits was not a listening room; things like "sound stage" and holographic image were not considered.

My Grado Master 2 can create a holographic sound stage, could the Stantons and the Pickerings do that?