Hear my Cartridges....🎶

As the New Year looms....I think it's time to try our final Shootout 🤼‍♂️
I began this Thread mainly to demonstrate that MM cartridges are not necessarily inferior to MCs......
The fact that LOMCs (and MI) have taken the top spots should not condemn the hypothesis...🧐
The price differential between current LOMC cartridges and MMs is indefensible.
No cartridge is worth $10,000-$20,000 based on the sonic benefits delivered in reality.

The second aim of this Thread was to demonstrate that little progress in cartridge design technology, has occurred in the last 30 years.
This applies emphatically in MM cartridge design....but also in LOMC designs.
The vintage cartridges of both types that have been presented here, generally exceed the sonic qualities of current 'modern' designs.

Without further ado.....let's hear how close a 35 year-old MM cartridge, can come to a $10,000 current-production 'uber' LOMC...😝

VINTAGE VICTOR X-1 MM CARTRIDGE

AS PALLADIAN LOMC CARTRIDGE

VINTAGE VICTOR X-1 MM CARTRIDGE

AS PALLADIAN LOMC CARTRIDGE

Spoiler Alert: The Palladian has been training for this contest and is 'On Fire'.....🔥

First, thank you again for what has been a very interesting thread. A great and rare opportunity to hear so many great cartridges.

I think your motivation for starting this thread is commendable. I can’t really comment on whether, in absolute terms, you met all your goals since I think that those are very personal calls. I think your first premise that MC’s are not necessarily better than MM’s was proven (again) handily. The top cartridges that you have treated us to are at an extremely high level of sonic excellence. Still, there remain differences between them that in the context of a particular system may swing our preference for one over the other because one moves the overall sound of a system a little closer to, not away from, our sense of what the sound of the real thing is. As with so many things in our hobby context is, if not everything, extremely important. I don’t know how one attaches a “correct” or “fair” cost to a cartridge that pushes the overall sound of a particular system a step closer to that sense of what reality is in a sonic area of personal priority.


For me, this thread has made clearer two things in particular. Just how much musical detail and nuance can be heard in a YouTube download recorded using rudimentary and portable recording gear was a big surprise. Then, the unexpected amount of detail reinforced and confirmed for me what I have always felt about MM’s vs MC’s.

i know some disagree with this premise, but I have always felt that in the area of tonality and timbre each type has, in a very fundamental way, a sound and character, or aspects of those, that carries to just about every cartridge of the same type that I have heard; a family sound. However, each does it by deviating from MY sense of what tonal truth is by going in opposite directions. My impressions of the Victor vs the Palladian confirmed once again why I feel this way.

The Victor sounds gorgeous. Maybe a little too gorgeous? The violin sounds just amazing. What a fantastic recording! Your system sounds particularly great with that record. However, there is a plummy character in the overall sound and a little bit of a “cupped hands around mouth” character in the frequency range of the woodwinds. The plummy character makes the harp’s lower strings too round and thick, and the upper strings don’t have as much of the characteristic gentle incisiveness and snap that is evident with the Palladian.

The Palladian swings a little the other way. It sounds a little dry. But, it sounds more linear without the excess in the lower mids and I would say that it swings toward the dry less so than the Victor swings toward the beautifully plummy. The main reason that I like the Decca so much is that, for me, it seems to strike a tonal balance between the two. As they say, “the truth is usually somewhere in the middle”. The sound staging seems amazing with the Victor. However, while the Palladian’s individual images sound smaller, they seem more correctly proportioned (size wise) relative to each other and better organized within the soundstage.

A surprise was that these characteristics were even more evident on the Brubeck clip. The generous lower mids and below character of the Victor made the piano’s left hand too full and thick robbing the piano of a little bit of its percussive role in the music. The absence of that extra fullness with the Palladian makes the musical flow a little more lithe. Paul Desmond’s is one my very favorite alto saxophone sounds. I have heard just about everything that he has recorded and I feel I have a pretty good idea of what his sound was. He famously said, when asked how he got that sound, that he wanted to sound “like a dry martini”. Great analogy that I get. With the Victor his tone is a little too wet. With the Palladian it sounds closer to real with the distinctive dryness as well as a little bit of brass sheen that seems totally absent with the Victor. Tonally, the Palladian sounds a little less like a recording than the Victor does.

Would I pay $10,000 for the Palladian? Of course not, I could live more than happily with the Victor. The differences are subtle and the Victor can sound absolutely gorgeous. But, .....

I hope none of my comments come across as attempting to dispute any of your premises. Just personal impressions based on my own preferences and biases. All very interesting and thank you again for one of the most interesting threads on Agon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Thank you Frogman...firstly for the kind words about this Thread and my System....and secondly, for all your significant and valuable contributions over the year 🤗
Of the 25,000 views.....I've been told that just as many people are reading for your comments, as to actually listen to the cartridges.

I've personally learnt a great deal myself....not the least, that you are correct about MC Cartridges being inherently slightly better than MMs 'when they are done RIGHT' 🙃.
The discovery of the Sony XL-88 and XL-88D and the reinforcement of my appreciation for the JMAS MIT-1 and PALLADIAN conclusively places them at the pinnacle of my cartridge collection.
I have also, thanks to your comments.....developed an increased appreciation for the singular attributes of the Decca London Reference.

Let me say that I agree totally with your comments re the Victor X-1 and Palladian.....
I also feel that the 'air' and 'reality' surrounding the higher frequencies with the Palladian....are superior to the Victor.
One thing I must ask you.......
On the Tchaikovsky, there are three subway trains passing under Kingsway Hall which are not only clearly audible in my listening room....but are also FELT with vibrations of the stomach-lining...
I can hear nothing of these on playback over my iPad or my upstairs computer and was wondering if, with your sophisticated headphones and amp....you can detect anything?

Finally I would like to thank the other regular contributors....Noromance, Dover and Harold (when he finds time to leave his barrel) 🤪

May 2020 be kinder than 2019 and.....
Let The Music Play 🎼🎹🥁🎷🎺🎸🎻

In my last Post, I mentioned the fact that I couldn't hear the subway trains under Kings Hall on the Tchaikovsky with either my iPad or Computer speakers.....hardly surprising 🥴
In the meantime I managed to playback the YouTube Video through my actual system and could HEAR the subway trains....🤗

So I thought it might be revealing to hear the differences between the 1st Generation Youtube Video of the actual VINYL with the Youtube recording of the YouTube Video.....🤔
I can hear significant losses......

1ST GENERATION YOUTUBE VIDEO

2ND GENERATION YOUTUBE VIDEO  

Those who have been following this Thread, will know that I’ve been advocating the great sound available from some of the best vintage MM Cartridges from the Golden Age of Analogue.
Let's try this Shoot-Out....

VINTAGE VICTOR X1II MM CARTRIDGE

AS PALLADIAN LOMC CARTRIDGE

AS PALLADIAN LOMC CARTRIDGE

VINTAGE VICTOR X-1II MM CARTRIDGE

One thing I’ve learnt for sure.......those Victor Engineers in Japan, we will never see the likes of again 😢