Is There An "Absolute" Best Cartridge?

Regards, Raul: Your accessment of the EPC-100M4: as wines can be reds, whites or the bubbly kind, sweet, nutty, fruity or dry, your Sommelier would suggest that one would be more appropriate in a certain set of conditions without intending the exclusion of others as being equally rewarding in different circumstances. Different vintages and social circumstance make this an open system.

Dertonarm, Travbrow, Nandric and others have politely expressed this concern relating to audio. With much respect for your pursuit of excellence and with recognition that logically there must be a "worse" and a "better", until systems and listeners are mass produced with cartridges as the only variable and all wines except one are blended in a closed system universiality, absolutes in an open system setting are contradictary. In practice(!), performance is a matrix of compatibilities and good or bad, integration remains system dependent. I wouldn't argue the quality a cartridge I don't know, it's the term "absolutely" I stumble over. Meanwhile, I'll remember knowledgable Raul stated it the absolute best he ever experienced and find fault with neither if someone else's fine tonearm thinks otherwise.

Ebm: Thanks for the humor ;-). You were joking, right?

Awakening or confirming suspicions? This may help:

http://2012.tribe.net/thread/665d4741-7369-4780-9e98-1bc651423192

Dear Timeltel/Nandric: Unfortunately there is no Maxim's de Paris restaurant everywhere, so to know it and understand what I meaning you must to go ( till one year was here in México. ) to Europe, China or Hong Kong. I attend here in México and in Paris too.

Maxim's de Paris is not a restaurant it is IMHO " the best " example of what any one could desire in a " boutique " status restaurant that btw posses maybe the greatess wine cellar in the world.
It is not a restaurant for any one even if you can pay it. Itt is a restaurant to people that has the knowledge or accustom to.

Well, a long history short: if you are an expert on wines and ask for Mersault 98 of the Bouchard " house/orign " ( I don't know how to say it ) and you ask to taste it before drink it you just can't do it: only the Sommelier can and have that right in benefit of you and what you pay for that wine.

If you are not an expert and already order what you will eat that night and ask for a wine then the only question the Sommelier ask you is: how much money do you want to spend? and after that you will have your bottle of wine: with no choices for you.

In both cases you will absolutely satisfied with the Sommelier " job " and you will remember that night and when you leave Maxim's the first thought to your mind is: to choose your next time in Maxim's!!!!!

On the Sommelier " job " subject his target is only that you be totally ( no excuses. ) satisfied with his choice and you know what: you always be!

Nandric in audio of course that are " added " conditions that's why you " study and training " several years to be an audio Sommelier!

I can but I don't have the time to explain you step by step what any one needs ( whole conditions. ) to achieve that audio " Sommelier " status.

What if you meet ( for the first time ) a person that tell you he is an Ayurvedic Gurú? and you tell him that he can't be ( in this example you don't know nothing about Ayurveda. ) and you tell him this only because you don't know nothing about or because you don't have that kind of training or knoledge or simple because you never been interested on Ayurveda.

All those " feelings " can't say that that man is not what he is or that could not be!

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Raul, you are referring (maybe without knowing so...) to the Volunté Générale by J.-J. Rousseau. This gets automatic in opposition to the "Volonté de tous" of all the other audiophiles.
This is an old dilemma.
Even if we take you as the chief sommelier of analog audio's Maxim's de Paris (although I am pretty sure there will be a hell of a lot of other audiophiles volunteer for that position... ;-)....), there are always - after all is said and done - even in widely recognized outstanding vintages - different tastes among people.
Some can't stand subtle details in a bouquet that the next finds overwhelming in beauty and delight.
Accepting laws of nature (human here ....) does not mean to abandon the pursuit for perfection or the strive for progress.
And the individual recognition of a "Volonté Générale" in analog cartridge performance is not transferable to another person. Recognition in the sense of the words of this heroic phrase means abusing it.
This has been done to great sadness in politics in the past 2 centuries and our world was not changed for the better - but it filled the graveyards and corrupted our ethics.
There is always a "best" cartridge in the moment and for the individual listener's matrix.
There is always a "best" Claret (among other great but different wines) for the moment and the respective course of menu - there is no absolute best for ANY occasion.
Even Parker and Broadbent would agree on that.....

Raul,

Not sure if this is already covered but what capacitance loading are you using for the EPC-P100CMk4? I assume that resisitance loading is at 100Kohm?

Rgds