Cartridge Opinions - Sorry

 the Denon 103 is a pretty nice cartridge for the money.

It is. Lots of nice comments from our customers.

Second the suggestion of a Hana cartridge.

And a third. One of my employees uses this cartridge- tracks anything.

Dear @nandric : "  disputes about not relevant details. "

Well certainly is not relevant to you but the subject ( " detail." ) to put the tonearm importance above the cartridge in LP analog rig is more relevant for some of us that what you can think.

In this kind of " disputes "/discussions always are learning audio information shared for the people involved that helps any one to improve his audio knowledge levels and for me one forums target is this precisely: learn.

Only an opinion.

R.

I

I fail to understand the purpose of ranking components by value. I see often contentious posts:
Cartridge vs cartridge setup
Cartridge vs cartridge+tonearm

Everything in the audio chain matters.
Do cartridges sound different? Yes
Is a subpar cartridge audible? Yes
Do tonearms affect the sound? Yes
Does platter surfaces affect the sound? Yes
Does platter material affect the sound? Yes
Does....Yes.... you get the picture

The entire audio chain matters. With the exception of those who buy pretty, most of us do a cost/benefit or more specificity a price/performance analysis to evaluate components as 99.9% of us have budgetary constraints (limited bank accounts). When we elevate our audio chains, we look at affordable upticks and address bottlenecks (weak links). If, for example, I continuously upgrade my audio chain with the exception of speakers, it’s likely that my speakers will become my weakest link.

We each have unique audio chains with various strengths/weakness links. Other than starting arguments, what’s the purpose of ranking? Since when does “this is better than that” trump the importance of maximum audio performance by maximizing audio chain components?

Forgive me if I’m reading this wrong, it may be that good to great cartridge setups commonly exists, in @atmasphere experience of “optimum” cartridge setup by others is rare. When you think about a stylus in the groove, is a very minuscule stylus/diamond tilt audible? Absolutely!

What complicates setup is that less than perfect stylus to cantilever mating is common, and occasionally the cantilever is less than perfectly mounted. Most will align using the cartridge body which doesn’t address this less than perfect mating/mounting. From the side, I surmise that few mount it to the ideal 92degrees or to whatever one seems ideal. I also surmise that few check the accuracy of stylus to cantilever mating. Now granted there are a few talented experienced folk that can reach optimization by ear, but many/most have not experienced “optimum”. @atmasphere seems to be alluding that there’s much more performance that can be wrung out of your existing cartridge if it is not yet optimized.

Dear Raul, My point is that questions about ''all carts'' make no
sense. This in contradistinction with particular cartridges. You
own the most carts among us while your capability is to judge
their quality. We all profited from your contributions about 
specific carts. I bought all MM carts which you recommeded 
despite the fact that I prefer MC carts. So, to use you own argument,
we can learn from your knowledge about specific carts. However
this does not apply for your many disputes. 

Dear chakster, your skeptical attitude against retips is curious.
First thing is the fact that no manufacturer use their own cantilevers
and styli. Those are produced by big Japanese jewel companies. 
The same apply for repair services. That is to say that retipers
use the same cantiler/styli combos. This part is then glued in the
so called ''joint pipe''. The aluminum part in which cantilever is
glued on which coils are fastened and in which tension wire is
fastened. Together those are moving parts by which one try 
to reduce the moving mass.  Preferably by reducing the coil
wire. To glue the cantilever/stylus combo in the joint pipe is
not ''rocket science''. Why should whatever manufacturer do this
better than an experienced retipper?