What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

@noromance , totally different ballgame. The pop removal is done before the RIAA filter is applied. The filter slurs the pop waveform making it twice as long in time. Taking it out after RIAA is applied leaves a bigger hole. The Channel D pop filter also fills in the gap with a duplicate of the preceding millisecond of waveform. All this is done in the digital world and is not noticeable. It also is removing just the big pops not the little stuff. It's sensitivity is adjustable. It can also be turned on and off on the fly. I seriously doubt any of us could reliably identify when the filter is on, I can't. Remember, this is not a stand alone piece of equipment. It is only a software program. It only requires a phono stage with a flat output. Granted, there are not many of them. I can not imagine a phono stage of higher quality than the Channel D Seta L Plus. I bought one for a reason and it was not cheap either, $10K. There are certainly more expensive units but excepting Channel D's Seta L20 at $60K there are no other more expensive units that interest me at all and this is after a decade of research. The CH Precision is a large overly complicated unit that requires an outboard power supply to function at at it's best. That is nuts to me. There is no better power supply than batteries. The unit disconnects itself from the wall in operation. Less is also more. When it comes to phono stages a lot more. 

So if digital is now perfect and battery supplies are perfect, who needs the world’s best cartridge? (Sarcasm intended.)

The Lino 3.3 was highly recommended as a phono stage that could stand up to any. I currently use a full function Atma-Sphere MP-1. This is a two box unit with a separate ps. I believe it was designed from its outset as a vinyl playback machine.

Half of its many tubes are the phono stage. I got lucky and scored 8 mil spec Mullard 12AT7s. Very rare and spectacular sounding.

I also save having to use another pricey IC and rack space for an outboard phono stage.

But the Lino seems like it may be something very special?

@rauliruegas @mikelavigne 

-Look, these are some specs of the Studer A820 that confirms in some ways what you posted and I said here:

tape speed deviation: +,- 0.2% - tape slip: +,- 01% . Speed stability here is even more critical issue than in a TT because is the recorder and the information used to cut the LPs.

W&F is +,- 0.03 % at 30" and 0.04% at 15" speeds.

Frequency response +,- 2db ( that’s a swing of 4dbs ! ! ) at 30ips from 40hz to 22khz and at 15ips 30hz-20khz ( really limited frequency response. ) and obviously that at +,- 1db deviation FR is even worst.

FWIW Dept.:

You need to spend some time with these machines to really understand them, and having done that I can tell you that if you spend the time really setting them up correctly they easily surpass the published specs. Just for the record though you're never going to see a variation of 4dB in FR!! Heck, you're hard pressed to get anywhere near that even with a cassette deck. If you spend time with the record and playback calibration, they can easily be well within 0.5dB between record and playback.

So put another way the specs you see represent a nominal machine, not one that is properly calibrated, and certainly not one that has been tricked out by one of several gurus of tape machines (that anyone who really wants to know how good they can get) who are known to service them. Put another way, Raul, Mike's machines are tricked out, having lower noise, lower distortion wider bandwidth and certainly far greater speed stability than the original stock specs suggest.

So, Raul, what Mike is hearing and what you are suggesting he is hearing are two really different things. IMO you need to acknowledge that.

The way this conversation has turned reminds me of a photography forum I used to frequent.  There were a number of really high-end commercial photographers that would participate in the forum and provide a ton of valuable information.  

Unfortunately, there were a few "know-it-alls" that would discount their experience and make baseless claims without having any actual experience that supported them. 

One by one the best contributors left, and once they did, many of the entry level pros and experienced hobbyists left as well.  The forum at one point would typically have about 50 active discussion threads.  I just looked this morning and there are 3.  The blind can't lead the blind.