What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

It all depends on how you look at it.

There are many fine sounding cartridges out there but there are certain criteria that to my way of thinking have to be met before considering the sonic characteristics of a cartridge. The first and most important is tracking ability. If a cartridge can not track everything I throw at it it is worthless to me. A cartridge has to track better than 80um or I am not interested. Thus, the Etsuro Gold is not a cartridge I would ever look at and I have just spent $35,000 on cartridges meaning it is not a financial issue.  From a technical perspective the new MC Diamond is going to be a more accurate performer and it can handle 80 um. Technology trumps artisanship when it comes to phonograph cartridges but, you have to understand the Japanese mentality when it comes to issues like cutting blades and phonograph cartridges which are endowed with the unique spirit of their creator. It is spiritual. 

The next important issue is the stylus. It has to be a fine line design of the highest quality. Each type of stylus has significant variations in quality even within the same manufacturer. I am beginning to think from what I have seen so far is that the styluses of the more expensive cartridges are hand selected. The better styluses with a larger contact patch are the ones that are really quiet because they glide over small imperfections other styluses with smaller contact patches fall into. 

What I find more interesting is how much these cartridges actually sound alike than different.  

You would have to be out of your mind to buy a Decca cartridge. They are not very popular for a good reason.

There is only one accurate. Everything else is not, euphonic or not.

Dear @mikelavigne  : I think that my misunderstood came from what you posted:

" the tubed power supply sounds better than a solid state power supply "

Than's for your last post where appeared not one but 3 different tube power suplies with no SS one.

Btw, " projects lots of energy and life. "  :

Obviously that exist different levels but those DaVa characteristics you named are shared by cantilever-less cartridge designs as the Ikeda REX9 and others.

There is no doubt that cartridge field coil design means a " different " quality level than other cartridge design principles ( motor. ) but the DaVa comes with 2 different " principles ": catilever-less and field coil. How much for one and how much of that quality for the other. Yes, at the ends only is important its overall quality level but ??....

The field coil principle can't recovery what the DaVa design cantilever-less can't pick-up from the LP grooves due that it is not ( no one cantilever-less is. ) good tracker.

Taking in count those facts could be interesting that an Audio Note I/O LOMC owner that along owns the I/O field coil could chime here on it because both cartridges are the same but the generator variable.

R.

"You would have to be out of your mind to buy a Decca cartridge."

I'll just sit here and drool and twitch!

If you are talking about supposed tracking issues, I have to say I have never had any such problems with either the undamped SME M10 or the damped Series V. I will admit they increase surface noise, and that has inspired me to become fanatical about record cleaning (and that's a good idea anyway as you cannot clean the stylus with anything other than a dry brush). If I outlive my Deccas, the plan is to get a Soundsmith strain gauge as a replacement, unless someone swoops in to continue the business.

I’ve been listening to the DaVa FC-1 (the lower-range model vs the Reference that MikeL has) for several months now. I bought it used with both SS and tubed power supplies and hadn’t bothered listening to the SS one until I saw this thread.

After a quick comparison, the difference is pretty obvious. The SS has more impact, the tubed more nuance, subtlety (though with still very saturated transients--not pulling punches in the least).

Also about this cart, in addition to having field coil magnets, it has a cactus quill cantilever, a conical stylus and I believe like the AT ART1000, the coil is attached very close to the stylus.

The best?

Always the next one ☝️

The problem with High End is the price tag. All think, the higher the price, the better it is.
Analog reproduction is a chain, the best cartridge can’t shine when the phono stage is not on par, same with Tonearm, cable, Preamp and so on and on

and finally, the old story… 3 Audiophiles listen … 3 opinions …

or, let’s be honest, imagine there is really the best cartridge out there BUT RSP would be 2500$ … do you really think, the audiophile community would accept it ?
I don’t think so