What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?
I believe that a cartridge and a speaker, by far, contribute the most to SQ.
The two transducers in a system.
I bit the bulllet and bought a Lyra Atlas SL for $13K for my Woodsong Garrard 301 with Triplanar SE arm. I use a full function Atma-Sphere MP-1 preamp. My $60K front end. It is certainly, by far, the best I have owned. I read so many comments exclaiming that Lyra as among the best. I had to wait 6 months to get it. But the improvement over my excellent $3K Mayijima Shilabi was spectacular-putting it mildly.
I recently heard a demo of much more pricy system using a $25K cartridge. Seemed to be the most expensive cartridge made. Don’t recall the name.
For sure, the amount of detail was something I never heard. To hear a timpani sound like the real thing was incredible. And so much more!
This got me thinking of what could be possible with a different kind of cartridge than a moving coil. That is, a moving iron.
I have heard so much about the late Decca London Reference. A MI and a very different take from a MC. Could it be better? The World’s Best? No longer made.
However Grado has been making MI cartridges for decades. Even though they hold the patent for the MC. Recently, Grado came out with their assault on “The World’s Best”. At least their best effort. At $12K the Epoch 3. I bought one and have been using it now for about two weeks replacing my Lyra. There is no question that the Atlas SL is a fabulous cartridge. But the Epoch is even better. Overall, it’s SQ is the closest to real I have heard. To begin, putting the stylus down on the run in grove there is dead silence. As well as the groves between cuts. This silence is indicative of the purity of the music content. Everything I have read about it is true. IME, the comment of one reviewer, “The World’s Best”, may be true.
I am curious what your preferences / biases are when evaluating design and manufacturing quality from 'afar'? ( since this will be based not on listening or a physical examination).
Thanks
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I mentioned some problems with quatifier ''ALL'' but would like to say more about this, uh, ''expression.''. The first paradox mentioned was about ''Greek liar'' by, uh, the old Greek. The Greek who stated that ALL Greek are liear''. But becuse he is also Greek... this means that all are stating truth.. The 'set theoretic paradoxes'' occured by ''SET OF ALL SETS'' If we have no idea about what we talking about than... Russel try to solve the problem by limiting ''extension of sets''. Aka ''about which set are we talking ?'' BTW Frega was fthe first who ''placed the problem '' in the context of ''generality'. We use those terms (quantifier) to express ''generality'' ..In english literture called ''universality'' and hence: ''universal quantifier'. But the question ''how many'' is anwered by 'numerical quantifier'' . Politians in Euroipe whio have no idea about this difference caused not only immigrants problems but alo ''energy problem'' by sanctions against ''all Russian raw materials'' . Well Europe lack those while Russia owns one third of the world naturl resources. At present Europe has next to immigrants crisis also ''energy crisis'' caused by polititian who make laws.but have no idea about their implications The so called ''Club of Rome'' warned about scaricity of row materials in 1972! |
mijostyn, I see you try some other approach than the one in your previous post. Probable to improve your ''status'' . Alas this will not do,. We buy ''new carts'' out of curiosity but in order to try. If we are satisfy after ''listening cesions'' we will keep the cart. Otherwise get rid of it by (re) reselling the thing. Thanks to Raul we got the chance to do this ''luxury'' approach for free. BTW when we look at ''technical specs'' of carts they all look as one egg to one other, except by Allearts . His are unbelievable but his carts do not sound better than some other with ''less impresive'' specs. See Raul's preference for ADC 26 in comparison. |
+1 to atmasphere. The tonearm match is a key variable. Along with the cart output / phono stage match, which also includes a compromise between what you can accept of background noise for getting the best sound. Speaking as a tube enthusiast (converted after many years of investing upwards in solid state without quite getting what I wanted). I play flutes, some guitar, etc - and playing along with the music from the stereo is my sure-fire method of finding what I like and not. I am not sure, when I prefer my Atlas cart compared to digital streaming, and even (often) my digital recordings from LPs, how much is due to the specific capabilities of the Atlas, and what would be the result with a less costly cart. I am part of a group of music lovers regularily meeting for an evening, hosted by each of us, so we get to hear many music systems. We have an unwritten rule: this is NOT an audio testing and comparison event, who has the best system, and so on. Works fine. And I have learned to listen for the positive aspects of each system, and try to look away from limits and faults. Good idea. We tend to converge, listening to LPs rather than digital, on these evenings - regardless of the low middle or high cost of the cart and the rest of the system. At the same time, I do hear what the Atlas is capable of. Maybe especially, very delicate and refined treble, compared to digital (including 24 - 192 hi res), easy to hear with female vocal like Rosalia: Motomami, for example (digital sounds good; the LP sounds great). Also, the Atlas has fairly "explosive" dynamics, and is no slouch on bass, as others have noted. So I think, all in all, that it is a good idea to invest in a good cart, even if it is costly. This is where the musical information starts, and the job of the rest of the chain is to reproduce it as faithfully as possible. |
Dear @o_holter : " . The digital version is good, but still has a way to go. " my recordings still hold a candle to streaming " Sure because is a " fake " digital version not an original digital version and because your take is full of subjectivity with out analising for your self what in reality are you listen it through analog. Obviously you don’t care about and you don’t care ( as almost all analog lovers . ) because that’s what you like it: subjectivity again. Almost always that we are making comments on digital and analog recording experiences almost all of us compare digital listen experience against same LP analog experience and this kind of reference IMHO is way wrong. I think that not only is way wrong but unnaceptable because both mediums not only are way different but the analog MUSIC information we are listening comes " truncated ": no one analog rig/cartridge can pick up all the recorded information in the LP grooves against digital that’s nearer and truer to the recording . There are other objective reasons why we almost always are comparing airplanes against a banana and you are not alone in this thread because between others M Lavigne did it on that specific regards.
Obviously that to each his own.
All subjectivist gentlemans almost always just diminish objectivity in so hard way that forget of it. Btw, which your MUSIC reference?
R.
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