MY SONIC LAB Cartridges

Edgewear said:
Matsudaira San’s designs definitely fall in the ’neutral’ camp, for whatever that term is worth. This often comes together with extreme detail retrieval, but the emphasis - if any - with MSL cartridges seems more on micro and macro dynamics than details for their own sake. This may be the reason these cartridges are usually described as being very lively, but sometimes also as being somewhat ’uneventful’: nothing sticks out, nothing draws attention to itself. In other words - uh - neutral.

Very interesting! this sounds like a very quiet in the grooves cartridge, that is perhaps more balanced than some of the hyper detailed offerings out there. All great info here...off to work...back later. Thanks to all so far!!!

fjn04-

The alloy cantilever remark is meant as a goof.

I believe the sensible knowledge here know it's implementation of whatever used. 

We spend our hard earned cash on boxes that produce sound. I at least like to have fancy name materials to justify my purchases.

Duraluminum is an outdated marketing term for.....wait for it.........aluminum. I worked in the cycling manufacturing industry years back and learned a few things about aluminum pedigree.

is cantilever material perhaps just a consumer perception to quality?
https://sound-smith.com/articles/retipping-article

Dear @fjn04  : MSL are really good cartridge designs and any buyer can't go wrong with, so an excellent alternative.

Now, you are with Kuzma and that makes me think that with any cartridge you will improve the system quality performance level with the Kuzma 4 point tonearm. You could think a little about too.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

@tablejockey, it sure seems to be that way. Some people even use cactus spines:-)

fjn04, a lot depends on the phono stage. The MSL cartridges have very low internal impedances. Used with a transimpedance or current mode phono stages there are significant advantages. I personally like the MSL cartridges much better than Koetsu's which I do not think deserve the mythical status they have.
With a standard phono stage I personally think you are better off with a high output moving iron design such as a Grado or Soundsmith. They have much better signal to noise ratios and should track better due to their very low moving masses. This will also give them better high frequency performance. They should also be more durable in the long run. Since the coils are fixed the coil wires are not being continuously flexed and work hardened.

@jperry , I think the right answer to Lewm's question is, "I do not know for sure."  What you hear depends more on you than the cartridge. I think what lewm is getting at is that good cartridges sound very much alike. The differences can be so minor that they are not discernable by casual methods. While speakers as an example can be vastly different and the variance can be drastic with such variables as room acoustics.

I prefer using the term "balanced" rather than "neutral." The best systems do not call attention to themselves. Nothing should stand out. Individual instruments should float in space and have size and depth. Turn the treble up just a few dB and the illusion of individual cymbals disappears. Disturbing that balance in any way corrupts the illusion that you are listening to individual sound sources and not a sound system. 

OP just get a SoundSmith cartridge and be happy. Sonically they are just wonderful and for the most part less expensive than other MC's and as @mijostyn stated above "should" last longer and track better.