Honest question about cartridge vs. turntable performance.

I will make an exaggeration to make the point. 
Which one do you think would sound better:

- a terrible turntable with a terrific cartridge
- a terrific turntable with a terrible cartridge

i think the answer is obvious ....

The answer is it depends on how terrific the cartridge- and how terrible the turntable.

The obvious answer is the question itself is terrible.

Now I have never used your Microseiki turntables but I find it interesting that their chief designer now makes only belt drive turntables. (Techdas)
A thin platter and a rubber mat are not much for shielding. The best shield from magnetism is distance.

@mijostin
I have mentioned only Micro Seiki BELT DRIVE, not any Direct Drive from them. The Belt Drive from Micro Seiki is something like this. Do you know the price? Not sure how many reference direct drive turntable anyone could buy instead of one Micro Seiki reference belt drive, the price is insane!

Chakster, in order for any turntable to be first class it has to be able to maintain speed in spite of any reasonable interference, it has to have an adequate record clamping system either reflex or vacuum, it has to be able to mount any tonearm you desire and it has to have a suspension that isolates it from anything over 2 hertz both vertically and horizontally.

No direct drive turntable I know of meets all of these requirements.

I am able to mount almost any tonearm on my $4000 Luxman PD-444 direct drive. Not a fan of vacuum clamping, but disc stabilizers or record camp like Micro Seiki ST-20 / CU-180 mat is what I use. Long time ago we came to conclusion here on audiogon that Luxman motor was made by Victor (not Micro Seiki). This turntable is suspended. Mode images here. The armboard system on the rails is the best I have ever used, ideal for tonearm collector like myself.

More reference direct drive turntable that you may never tried:
Victor TT-101, Denon DP-80, Technics Sp-10 mkIII or latest SP-10R.

All those are the best bang for the bucks as Lewm pointed out.
If a $2000 drive can give you more than $20 000 drive then why even look for the most expensive? You’re talking about turntables what will never be withing a price range that I (and many others) can spend on a turntable, in my opinion it’s a waste of money.

Atma-Sphere, I have this nagging itch that tells me it is the "less money"
part that is most significant here.

@mijostyn  That might be due to Veblen Effect- the same reason that people preferred Campagnolo derailleurs back in the 1970s even though SunTour derailleurs were better in every way. Its that nagging itch that tells you that because its more expensive, it has to have more value. It doesn't always work that way- if the product is built to a pricing formula rather than what the market will bear, it is often less expensive.


The Technics machines are less expensive out of volume. You might want to give them another listen; the new 'tables are entirely different designs even though they've retained the same look. I've installed Triplanar arms on a number of them- that combination is very hard to beat!

Plus Mijostyn has never revealed exactly which DD turntables he listened to back in the "1970s or 1980s", with what tonearms and cartridges and on what speakers.  (Not that it would matter all that much, unless he listened to some decidedly inferior brand or model, because otherwise he is entitled to his opinion.)  Plus, dear Mijo, you are guilty of a common audiophile sin: You have an observation on one hand ("I did not like that turntable sound), and a not necessarily related fact on the other (the turntable has a motor situated directly under the platter), and you are positing a cause and effect for which we (neither you nor I) have no other evidence.  Even the 1970s (50 years ago) were not "dark ages".  Electricity was well understood in the 1970s.  Engineers knew about EMI and RFI and their possible negative effects on the operation of a phono cartridge placed nearby.  Shielding was also an understood art.  All of the high quality vintage DD turntables I have encountered evidence an effort to prevent the motor from interfering with the low level signal from a cartridge.  I've measured EMI near the surface of the platter for two of my own DD turntables (SP10 Mk3 and Kenwood L07D), while the turntable was in operation, of course, and the signal is not above background.  This is proof of nothing, but it is evidence of something.