Cartridge ISOLATION; What Say You?

With the cartridge we want some combination of materials structured so as to hold the cartridge firmly in a fixed relationship to the head shell, and yet at the same time have just enough flexibility on a micro level to dissipate cartridge vibration and not reflect it all right back down into the stylus.

It must be held rigidly, but yet also in a way that facilitates some vibration to dissipate into the more massive arm, while damping cartridge vibration, and all of this at the same time as not reflecting vibration right back down into the stylus.

It’s one or the other, your 2 stated goals are mutually exclusive. Either it is firmly fixed or it is not.

In an ideal world the cartridge body would have infinite mass so all movement would be the stylus/cantilever. Since that is impossible we have a variety of designs that approximate this by holding the body as rigidly as we can so the body does not move in response to the stylus/cantilever movement.

inserting some material between the cartridge and the head shell allowing the cartridge to vibrate in response will definitely affect this relationship so it will definitely affect the output of the cartridge. Declaring this change to be universally better is sort of silly if you think about it.

If this device is the panacea some of you declare then why don’t the cartridge designers build this into their devices? If their goal is the best sound they can get why ignore this very simple and inexpensive "enhancement. ?

The simple answer is the device may compensate for some design flaws in lesser arms/tables and may change things in a way that some find to be better. While it may be a universal truth that it changes things, it is not a universal truth that it makes things better


In my experience anybody spouting universal truths like below can generally be ignored.

Speakers and other components sound much better on springs. In all cases this is because

Sadly The Cartridge Man aka Len Gregory passed away nearly a year ago! So his products are no longer available.
I’ve auditioned the Soundsmith Strain Gauge 210 and yes it is very detailed and revealing, but the Koetsu Rosewood Signature that I use is also in a similar realm, so until it is time to renew I’ll stick with it, only then may I push the boat out and buy a Strain Gauge  - as here in the UK it is considerably more expensive than in the US

@chakster I concur.

string quartet in the mastering room….what an idea….

w both high speed tape and a really good ADC ( Wadia 17 ), imagine that….

Or direct to disc.

The simple answer is the device may compensate for some design flaws in lesser arms/tables and may change things in a way that some find to be better. While it may be a universal truth that it changes things, it is not a universal truth that it makes things better

+1 exactly and eloquently stated. I was trying to beat about the bush so as not to insult anyone's system, but this is the nub of it.

I once had the experience of hearing a modestly skilled sax player perform in my listening room, standing between my pair of Sound Lab 845PX speakers. Now THAT was a real lesson in comparing live sound to reproduced sound in my system.  I was actually quite pleased with the degree to which my system could sound "live" next to the real thing.  But single instruments in free space are easiest to replicate.  I don't pretend my system could do as well with a full orchestra, if that was possible to demo in my listening space.  One thing that always strikes me when I get to hear musicians live and unamplified is the dynamics.  Live music is first of all more dynamic than most of us can achieve at home, or at least that is the biggest challenge to replicate.  All that audiophile stuff about imaging and depth is nice to think about, and establishing those two senses is a worthy goal in stereo, but in real life one cannot always place the musicians in space with eyes closed, either side to side or front to back.  What one can sense is the startling undistorted SPLs effortlessly achieved by live musicians.

With all due respect to fans of TOP (I am not one), I am thinking that a casino PA system is not likely to enchant me.  But for all I know, the named venue is set up like a real concert hall.