Cartridges: Complete Scam?

Next time you find an SP10 Mk3 in a dumpster, call me immediately and I will have it removed to a safe place in my house, at no cost to anyone.

No, it is not anyone's contention that "all modern engineering techniques and materials have little to no value to turntable/cartridge performance". But SOME vintage equipment certainly CAN match up to and exceed that of SOME modern gear.  Seems to me that you are the one who is brim full of assumptions.

"It’s hard for me to take a recommendation seriously when they come from people who restore dumpster-rescue vintage turntables — it sounds like to me that they’re just protecting their emotional investment in ultra low-end sound."

I'm really not sure what the relevance of your statement is, as it has no bearing on the topic at hand. I restore, modify and hot rod older tables, or any table for that matter. My favorite to work on is a Thorens TD 150. There is just so much greatness that can come out of this table. I have also worked on VPI, AR, Pioneer and many others. It has given me many hours of joy and understanding of what qualities makes a table work well. And, in reality, there is not much difference in tables built 10-20-30 or 40 years ago to tables built today. I also have, and have had, many newer tables in and out of my home. I usually run two tables.

Further, I have also advocated that more money wisely spent can also lead to better sound. So what is your point regarding your above statement anyway? 

You have manufacturers such as Benz Micro, Soundsmith, Koetsu, Clearaudio, Rega, Dynavector, etc, who make mid-to-high level cartridges ranging from $2K to as much as $15K (or more?). The sentiment I often come across online is that there is little or no difference between these products and vintage cartridges.

Is that REALLY the case? If so, than what these manufacturers are engaged in is a scam, and those people online seem to know this through experience and I would do myself a huge disservice to dismiss them out of hand. Maybe I SHOULD send back my MoFi, find a Thorens, Garrard, Denon, etc, on eBay for next to nothing and have it restored for a few hundred. What do you guys think? Should I avoid the scam?

If it isn't really the case, then it's just some people who have attached their ego to the gear that is attainable to them and so defend it out of emotional need and not because of the sound they produce. What do you guys think -- is "you get what you pay for" still in effect here?

The only way to know is to try it for yourself. Maybe that restored table is better than your MoFi. You are the only one that can make that decision.

Dear friends: I don't know you but for me is very dififult to have a good dialogue/discussion with people that really can't " read " what they read. I can read something and just not understand it because I have a " slow brain " or in other words because I'm stupid.

I posted several times in other analog roockie threads where they have not any idea of analog but understand what experienced people posted and his questions and answers they gives are inteligent questions/answers, they have common sense.

Unfortunatelly this is not the case with this analog roockie that every single post repeat and repeat the " same " with out understand what other people said.

He posted question after question with the same wrong topic and when some one ask him something he just does not answered,  dead silence almost as his brain.

He gave no answer to this posted question: 

""" I think that before you ask what you posted there you have to ask your self: how good is the quality sound you are listening at your analog home system. Are you impressed? ""

That dead silence tell me not only his ignorance levels but his stupidity level.

My question to all of you: can you have a " decent " dialogue with a stupid person? with some one that maybe can't even remember his name?

Maybe I'm to stupid trying to do it.

Forums everywhere is a free place to make some kind of audio contribution that can help audiophiles and music lovers. Which is his real contribution here for any one ?

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

Btw, @inna : """  For as long as we are talking analog not digital, it is fine ""

Things are that today with out help of digital technologies you can't improve your analog experiences.