What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

Great post, Lewm. I agree on every count; exactly my experience.  

When a System is put together in a way that the devices in use are able to resolve recorded information and present it in a manner that creates a perception that an Honesty and Truth is being presented, it will be quite easy to describe the experience as having a realness to it.

The wording used to describe the believability of the 'realness', will be as varied as the wording one might use to describe how attending a Live Performance from an enjoyed Band hit home, as much of the emotion being portrayed will not only be created by the now experience, but these will also be influenced by very specific events that took place over earlier periods of time and how they impacted on each individual. 

Individuals are very much controlled by their emotional state. Music Replays evoke emotion, and the impact of the evoked emotion, can be used to determine the quality of the replay. This is not the best method for judging equipment performance. It is the best method to judge why a item or selected system is the best choice for an individual.

To see a Band, Perform Live, that was a creator of selected Song at a Loved Ones Funeral, or a Special Song chosen at an Important Moment in one's Life, will have a compound effect on an attendee of an audience.     

It’s much simpler than that (for me).

Assuming no significant electrical incompatibilities that would cause us to unfairly judge its actual potential in a different application, each piece of audio gear inserted into an audio system affects the resulting sound in one of two ways- it moves the resulting sound closer to, or farther away from the sound of live music. This, no matter that piece of equipment’s pedigree. Even the very best gear has a long way to go to being truly “neutral”. We can talk about technical “accuracy”, or technical superiority all we want, but then are left with the inevitable question of whether it actually brings the sound closer to the sound of live music. THAT, as far as I’m concerned is the most important measure of a component’s superiority; and technical issues take a back seat. So, how to make that judgment?

The best we can hope for is to judge the sound relative to the sonic “generalities” that we have learned to recognize through experience and exposure to live sound. And, yes, even the sound of electronic music can be judged this way; although, the well of information available for making that judgment is far far less deep than that available from live, unprocessed acoustic music. A simple and unavoidable fact.

Oh, but then there are the cries of- “there are too many variables”, “we all hear differently”, “how do we know what it sounded like in the studio?”, etc., etc. Or, “it is superior if it sounds closest to what is on the recording”. First, how the hell does one know exactly what is on the recording unless one was at the recording session AND have an extremely good aural memory? We don’t.

So, ask yourself this question: how is it that when walking down a street and one hears the sound of a saxophone or vocalist coming out an open window a block away one can immediately tell when it is an actual live musician playing?

First, it is the complex tonal textures and, even more importantly, the dynamic immediacy and nuance that immediately tell us it is the real thing; aspects of musical sounds that suffer tremendously during the record/reproduce process. There is no electronic signature. And, importantly, we don’t have our audiophile hats on at that moment. Hats which tend to cause us to lower the bar of expectation and accept at least some degree of electronic signature as “normal”. I think that, ironically, many audiophiles have not learned to listen. We tend to go into a different mode of “listening” when dealing with and listening to “Audio”. Another example:

How is it that even over a telephone, the lowest of the low-fi pieces of equipment, we can immediately recognize, not only the voice of a loved one, but that the person has a slight cold, for instance? We can because of familiarity with that sound. There is no substitute for this.

I don’t understand the point of proclamations about component superiority based only on technical issues. As important as those are, it really comes down to what sounds best to us based on our own set of sonic priorities. However, if superiority (“best”, whatever) is to be declared, to me it has to be relative to whether the sound of that piece of gear moves the sound closer to, or farther from my sense of the sound of live; and, the emotional component that is best expressed when live. Simple as that.

No argument with Frogman. For me the most astonishing aspect of live music is the transient response and dynamic range, compared to home audio. There’s plenty of “distortion “ in a live club venue due to bad rooms and ambient noises, but the sense of immediacy is riveting. For me therefore, the speakers are of paramount importance. I don’t care if the signal is pure as can be, analog or digital, if the speakers are sluggish all will be lost. I once had a sax player perform in my listening room, standing between a pair of massive ESLs. That was informative.

Also recognize there are some things that are either unmeasurable or not yet measured.

The words of Daniel Von Recklinghausen come to mind. They apply directly to this conversation. As I mentioned, something is driving LP sales. If the digital community fails to recognize the significance of that, it will also fail to take the measurements that they have failed to take in the past. If you live your life according to made up stories rather than 'what is' you will suffer. Literally this is why digital has been unable to eclipse vinyl; the digital community simply makes up the story that 'its better'. This made up story is the impediment that causes digital to fall short for the last 40 years. 

A few pragmatic designers do move the art forward but a serious problem is so much really dreadfully awful terrible digital gear that is still in service. IMO that bit is what is preventing digital from finally committing the LP to history.

In the meantime having a good cartridge set up in an arm that can really track it solves a lot of headaches- you can just sit down and enjoy music rather than having to worry about any specs. But as Mr. Von Reklinghausen points out the right specs are important for that to happen.