Difference in sound using different carts when digitizing vinyl record?


Hello A'goners .......

I hope I am posting it in the right forum!

Here is my question - this is a hypothetical situation - if I digitize my vinyl record  while the record is played using any cart (cart #1) and then again play and digitize the same record using a different cart (cart #2), am I going to hear any sound difference typically attributed to two different carts? Everything else remain same in both cases i.e. the turntable, phono stage, DAC, preamp, amp, speakers, and all cables. The software to digitize is the same with identical setting. 

Did anyone of you do this or similar experiment? I am curious to know.

I bought a Sweetvinyl Sugarcube SC-1. I am wondering because of the conversion to A to D and then again D to A, it there a possibility that the sound differences from different carts are not so significant anymore?  Right now I do not have two carts, so can not do the experiment myself and report the results here. That is why I am asking the question and hoping to get some reasonable answers.  Please pardon my lack of technical knowledge.  

I would appreciate if we stay focused on the topic while discussing this. I do not want a debate of why I or anyone wants to convert analog to digital or one format is better sounding than the other.

Thanks and have a good day :)
 


128x128confuse_upgraditis

@confuse_upgraditi The Sugarcube will digitise and reproduce the analogue sound as best represented via the vinyl. The better the signal played through the cartridge to the 'Cube the better the sound out of the 'Cube. It only processes the abnormalities represented as the pops and clicks and negates them, as you know.

What a lot of responders have not realised is that your question does not involve storage to disk and its subsequent reproduction. You are using the 'Cube, a sound processor, to remove abnormalities on a vinyl record such as a scratch may give.

However, as stated before, the better the input to the 'Cube, the better the reproduction.

Ps. Love the Koala (I'm also from the land downunder)

To the OP: As you apparently realized mid way through the barrage of responses, your question is not about whether digital recordings of one cartridge vs another would reveal differences between them.  Your question is really specific to the Sugarcube and any other component that does what it does. (I am not aware of any other.)  As I now understand it, your question is whether inserting the Sugarcube  in between your phono and linestages would obscure the differences between two different phono cartridges.  Since no audio device is perfect, and since even very modern state of the art D2A and A2D is only near to perfect, I would guess that the Sugarcube MUST not be perfect.  It must alter the signal in some small ways.  Whether you can hear the difference, only you and other owners of the Sugarcube can say.

Incidentally, I own about 2500 LPs.  Nearly half of them were purchased "used", but I have very stringent criteria for purchasing used LPs when it comes to the condition of the playing surface.  I also clean my newly purchased used LPs on a VPI HW17 RCM. (I have not advanced to Ultrasonic yet.)  I just clean them once, after purchase, and maybe never again. Having taken those precautions, it is very rare for me to hear a tick or a pop during playback.  Some older LPs do have a faint "white noise" background, but that is either tape hiss from the original process or surface noise from prior use or imbedded dirt that just won't go away.  I can tune that out.  So, I'm wondering how bad could be your LPs that you feel you need the Sugarcube?  I am guessing that their customers would be mostly younger newbies to vinyl who were nurtured on digital and have therefore become highly sensitized to the occasional (or rare) tick or pop. That's no slur on you;  I only wish I were still young enough to fall into that category.
Ok, as promised, here are the files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/opg3udisptsys73/Dire%20Straits%20Koetsu.flac?dl=0
and:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cj8asa4xolyvxd8/Dire%20Straits%20Decca.flac?dl=0

The first file is Dire Straits´ Walk of Life played through a Koetsu Coralstone/SAEC WE 308 L combo, the second one is the same song through a Decca London Reference/SME V . Phono preamp is a Manley Steelhead. Both files have been normalised to -1 dB to nullify volume differences because of differences in output voltage of the two cartridges.
The files were digitised at 16 bits 44.1 kHz. ADC is a Metric Halo ULN8.
I would say that the most important is the Table, then the tonearm, then the cartridge.  However, I would say that the cartridge and stylus do influence the sound tremendously, more so than the table and the tonearm, but you have to have that table and tonearm first or you will never know the potential of any given cartridge. I myself feel that in my modest system, the Lyra Delos is about as much cartridge as I will ever need.  I do not have a 200K+ system where a better cartridge than that will make that much of a difference. diminishing returns to say the least. 
People swap cartridges more often, not a turntables @tzh21y  
We have more cartridges than turntables anyway, most of us
Some people have many tonearms, but not as much as the cartridges
This common practice is a proof of the importance of the cartridge (matched to a tonearm) as the main factor in analog. I know audiophiles with 1-5 turntables maximum, but with 30+ cartridges.