Cartridge ISOLATION; What Say You?

@tomic601 I think MC’s gushing over the strain gauge actually speaks more towards his personal musical priorities, which may or may not match others’ priorities. He seems to like his SQ very clean, fast, and with a sense of immediacy that not everyone may connect with - in fact, some may feel these sonics could become fatiguing. This SQ describes the Tektons (designed by a drummer) as well as the Herron phono stage which is the cleanest (almost SS-like) sounding tube phono stage I’ve ever owned.

Plenty of folks totally connect with these sonics but I did find some of Fremer’s (one of MC’s audio heros - did you know he once called MC on the phone???) comments interesting as Mike reflected on the virtues and possible compromises of the Strain Gauge in his Stereophile review:

That stop-and-start ability, that freedom from overhang that audiophiles often confuse with "warmth," are leapfroggings in performance over more usual cartridge designs—yet the SG-200’s delivery was so fast and clean that there was little time for harmonic development to unfold before it was off to the next aural event. So while the attack was extraordinary, the sustain was somewhat stingy. The SG-200 could sound somewhat cool and lacking in physicality, and while its top was crystalline and airy and its bottom tight, deep, and well textured, the mids were less than fully fleshed out, making the overall sound somewhat cool and slightly recessed.

The SG-200 is a perspective-changer, that’s for sure, and not because it adds gross colorations—though with that apparently rising high end, it definitely has a unique sonic character. Don’t expect unrelenting brightness, because it didn’t consistently sound like that. That particular quality seemed to be record-dependent, and not predictably so, for reasons perhaps Peter Ledermann can explain.

Admittedly the irony to what I've typed above is that I'm not sure MC has actually ever heard a Strain Gauge...not hearing a product admittedly has not stopped him from gushing over other products in the past.

yes, carbon fiber violins have incredible attack, not so much sustain.

The crux of what we are talking about is small sample size leading to outsize conclusions…

Yes, I own a Herron and currently in a bit of a nadir, just 5 other phono stages….One of them in MM mode absolutely destroys my much loved Herron. The Herron is superior in MC, cue those essential FET.

Reality; is tge Herron a Lamm, ARC or VAC at $10-$15k ? No. I would be curious to see what Keith could do w a $10k out the door budget. He is skilled engineer with ears and it seems based on my conversations w him, emotionally mature, ego in check. 

How do i know that in my systems anyway that the Lamm, and ARC are superior ? by having the social and economic capital aka relationships w dealers…

Nothing like living with a well broken in reference grade phono for a week…

The Zesto falls squarely in my radar…

open mind, open ears, think one thing is only truth…. ha.

Does anyone here, revealing my age remember Iversons work w strain gage ? ( electron kinetics / Eagle )

Hey Jim,
What MM phono stage are you referring to above? 

Vibration dissipation? The cartridge body should not vibrate at all. Any vibration of the cartridge body is distortion. The best way to keep a cartridge from vibrating is to fix it firmly to a very rigid structure with enough mass to get the resonance point of the cartridges suspension down to 10 Hz. Above 10 Hz the system is rigid. Below 10 Hz the tonearm is free to move. Adding another suspension between the cartridge and tonearm adds another resonance point which is going to be much higher than 10 Hz and it will not isolate the cartridge from anything occurring below that resonance point. It may well be within the audio band which will cause ringing. I can not imagine any circumstance where this would be beneficial. Nobody I know of makes a tonearm that bad.