Cartridges: Complete Scam?

Technics, Pioneer, Denon, Victor, Micro Seiki made so many direct drive turntables, may of them are relatively cheap now (say $500), some of them are not high-end. The most popular is SL1200mk2 sold in a million copies with its stock $150 tonearm. Is that low quality? Speed stability is questionable? The better cartridge - the better the sound (especially if the arm is rewired) ! Does the bad cartridge sounds amazing on high-end Sp10mk2 with EPA-100 tonearm? Unfortunately not, it does not sounds better.

Again, i’m not sure what is "low quality" means to some of you, maybe cheap belt drive with speed stability issues that you can actually hear, but comparing one direct drive to another direct drive is another story.

The best combination is a great cartridge on the great tonearm/turntable, but in case with those classic and relatively cheap DD drives i would always upgrade the cartridge first.

The average cartridges never impressed me on the reference turntable in my system, i believe SP10mk2 or Lux PD444 have pretty good speed stability and Reed 3p is a true reference tonearm. But it is so easy to hear how weak is the cartridge if it’s not a top quality cartridge. I justs don't understand how a bad cartridge can reproduce music as good as the great cartridge?  It's noncence! 

@rauliruegas

Even with " non so perfect " speed stability you can’t recovery in any way what the cartridge can’t pick-up and that’s why is so important and critical the cartridge tracking abilities.
We can fix some kind of issues with the TT speed stability but we can’t fix the inherent cartridge self tracking abilities.

There are so many people who loves the SPU cartridges with it’s low tracking ability, low compliance and extremely high tracking force.

On the other hand we have those who prefer high compliance cartridges on lightweight tonearms, those cartridges are great trackers.

But since we’re not listening Telarc 812, the tracking abilities of the SPU is enough for many audiophiles. And if it’s not misstracking on normal records with normal music then it’s ok. For many analog lovers the theory and reality is not the same, what about those idler drives compared to direct drive etc ? Tube vs. transistors ... and so on.

The best way is just to listen to the music and fidn what you like personally (in reality) not on the paper with all the specs.

P.S. I have those high compliance cartridges, but i also have an SPU Royal G MK II with Ortofon Replican 100 stylus (the only spu with reduced tracking force). On the same turntable i have Ortofon MC2000 high compliacne MC right now. In theory the MC 2000 must be better, but the sound of that SPU with Replican 100 is amazingly good. What can i do? It’s my personal impression, but this impression is more important for me than anything else on the paper. And for each of us, i believe.

Dear @frogman : In TT speed stability is a very desired TT characteristic, no doubt about but the critical an important subject there is : which the edge/border for the rhythm be losted due to TT speed stability?

During the recording process exist speed un-stabilities through the R"R decks and maybe ( I don't know for sure. ) during the cutting process and you can't hear or detect that rhythm was losted. So exist a limit for speed un-stability and speed stability has other roads as: short time or in the long time, depends how performs the TT. In which time is present.

Do you know those TT speed limits for not affect the rhythm? because there is no perfect TT and almost all of us enjoy that MUSIC rhythm.

In the other side @chakster tracking ability is not the cartridge it self is only part of something important too that's is the cartridge motor design.

The importance in that cartridge tracking abilities is that as better tracker as more recorded information you have along lower distortion levels. If that cartridge  performance or what you listen like you or not that's another matters.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

<frogman> Yes, your logic is good. We should be looking at turntable speed issues first and then resonance issues and to a lesser extent cartridge tracking and frequency range (closed related to tracking /construction). Its very dubious whether tracking ability gets better after $200.

The industry does not like what you are saying about price not being linked to performance in these areas. That doesn’t make it any less true.

Reviewers can and should focus on these easily measurable attributes and leave aside their chatter about preferred colorations.

My point was that a good $200 cart on a decent deck, say Technics SL1200G/ Rega RP8 etc will outperform a $2000+ cart on a Rega Planar 1 etc by a large margin. In fact no cart at any price on a Planar 1 will get close.

Dear Raul, the parallels to our earlier analog/digital debate in another thread should be obvious. I mention that as a point of interest only since I really would prefer to not return to that specific argument; we will simply not agree on that point. However, I do think it all highlights once again the simple fact that each of us is more or less sensitive to and more or less forgiving of specific playback performance shortcomings than others. With respect, I believe that you are more sensitive to tonal neutrality issues than to timing neutrality issues.

**** During the recording process exist speed un-stabilities through the R"R decks and maybe ( I don’t know for sure. ) during the cutting process and you can’t hear or detect that rhythm was losted. ****

I could not disagree more strongly. I have many recordings on lp and cd that were recorded in analog that clearly exhibit speed instabilities that hurt the rhythmic impetus of the music and are heard as decreased rhythmic “groove” in the performance and often glaringly in the sound of sustained piano notes. These issues are clearly heard as a product of either the recording or the mastering process and not due to turntable issues.

**** Do you know those TT speed limits for not affect the rhythm? because there is no perfect TT and almost all of us enjoy that MUSIC rhythm. ****

Of course they do.  Again, I could not disagree more. Some, otherwise “good” (and expensive) turntables sound rhythmically anemic. Moreover, how then does one explain the dramatic improvement in rhythmic impetus of the music when some “highly regarded” belt drive turntables are converted to string drive? Whether a listener enjoys the music or not depends on how sensitive he/she is to less than close-to-perfect speed stability. I say “close-to-perfect” because only in live music can one have perfect speed stability of the kind that allows the full rhythmic nuances of the performance; and if the PERFORMANCE is not perfectly rhythmically stable it can be heard as such and the product of the perfomance not a distortion by the equipment. I recognize that there exist turntables that are very very good in the speed stability department. Good direct drive tt’s obviously do extremely well in this dept. However, they, like all tables, have their own tonal signature and this becomes part of the “balance” of all parameters that we all try to achieve based on our own personal idea of what is best.

I have always felt that accurate reproduction of rhythm is the “final frontier” of good audio reproduction. Imo, it is the most overlooked and misunderstood audio performance parameter and what usually suffers most when recorded music is compared to live music since much more than timbre, frequency extension, soundstaging and all that audiophile stuff is where the music is.