What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

@pindac That's very interesting. You may have gathered I'm wedded to my London Deccas, but I know I must be prepared for their demise and unrepairablity after John Wright retires at the end of this month. The Kontrapunkt C has been a welcome surprise when taken out of my stash of older cartridges, and while I had thought I would replace it with something like a Cadenza Black when the stylus goes, I'm now thinking I might be better off sending it for a re-tip to VAS or Soundsmith. I can see myself getting very comfortable with it: when you keep equipment a long time because it suits you, your tastes change to align with what you hear. It's like a comfortable pair of well-worn shoes, where both shoe and foot adapt to each other. You get to a point where your system, which may not be the objective best around, still sounds 'right' to you. I think this is rather desirable to a pragmatic audiophile, as it gets you off the treadmill of constant upgrades and dissatisfaction, and lets you get to the point where you are happy with (and a little proud of) what you have, and you can settle down to listening to the music, not the equipment.

My encounters and following assessments lead myself to a different approach of thought, I am convinced the K’b is a not too attractive Cart’ when used on certain Designs for a Tonearms and can be underwhelming, even though replaying the music in a manner that can be enjoyed. The K’b is a Jekyll and Hide, as when used on another Design of Tonearm, the Design is quite capable of excelling, and becoming very attractive in use. When partnered with a Tonearm of a certain design, the K’b has proven itself to compare very favourably to much more expensive Brand family members, leaving not too much amiss in the comparative performances.

Having about a dozen upper-line MC’s I rotate among, I can for sure say that some are particularly hot or cold (or chameleon-like, or Jekyll & Hyde, etc) depending on what gear they’re mated to. But here turntable and speakers remain constant; even the tonearm is usually constant now as I’ve settled on the 2nd FR64fx as my "sandbox" arm. But some cartridges have been particularly sensitive to SUT pairing first, and then preamp & amplifier second. Even tube rolling selections can affect this:

• Shelter Harmony - When Cold: A bit too hot up top, and too lean in the midrange through upper bass. When Hot: Amazing clarity through midrange, fast, tight & punchy bass, sparkling highs and beautiful staging. Can pull new life out of some pressings on the dull / dark side.
• Ortofon Windfeld Ti (and MC): Cold: Dry and boring overall. No life in the midrange. Sounds like good (not great) digital. The older MC version had these problems plus too hot treble. Hot: Well balanced, super clean linear & neutral. Very fast response! Spectacular quality treble, like a top flight Stax headphone system, without being too overblown. The opposite of being lifeless; it brings life to the music. Ti is cleaner, smoother than MC. The Jubilee is similar to Windfeld MC too, but not as good and I never got it to work for me before trading (it worked well for the friend I traded it to).
• Benz Ebony L: Cold: A little anemic (or at least reticent) in bass. Sounds like a slightly atrophied Koetsu. Perhaps a touch hot on top at times. Hot: Beautifully musically balanced while showing far more refinement than lower Benz models; a near flawless manifestation of the classic Benz iron cross sound (IMO), and a good affordable alternative to Koetsu.

Then there are cartridges which seem quite happily situated in MOST system configurations I’ve tried them in. Of course proper matching can still take them further, but you’re less likely to have a disappointment here. To me, these include:
Koetsu (all), Shelter Accord (far more easygoing and affable than its big brother Harmony), Ortofon A90, Kontrapunkt "C" and Cadenza Bronze, Benz Zebrawood.

There are endless variables to cartridge use cases, and endless variability in user preferences, which is why these discussions are similarly endless...

Once you start creating Frankenstein cartridges, by changing or modifying cantilevers, styli, coils, suspension, bodies, etc, then opinions regarding the net SQ are even more useless than otherwise, not to say that comparing OEM cartridges without respect to different tonearms, turntables, amplification, speakers, rooms, listeners, is a worthwhile pursuit, beyond expressions of love, meh-ness, or hate.

It would never have occurred to me that the road to cable Nirvana would be found by combining many strands of wire of different gauges and different shapes (ribbon AND round cross-section) and even different compositions (one strand seems to be copper sheathed in silver; the rest of the strands are pure silver).  I don't know how to rationalize it, but I don't argue with listening tests.  I think Mike and others on WBF are just as surprised at the results.

I was surprised at how much better things got when I went balanced. One of the goals of balanced operation is to eliminate interconnect cable interactions and it does that quite well.

fundamentally using an SUT potentially brings a musical touch, inner artistic view and envelopment that high gain phono preamps such as the darTZeel can’t quite do in the same way. this effect varies with actual execution of the phono and SUT.

SUTs can't pass the RFI that is generated by a LOMC cartridge (its an interaction of inductance in parallel with capacitance that makes the RFI). This suggests that the preamp is sensitive to RFI and so sounds better when its been filtered out. If the preamp isn't sensitive to RFI then the SUT won't bring anything to the table (other than possibly lower noise).

For an MM phono stage, such as the one Mike uses, there is no option besides using an outboard SUT or other active gain device ahead of the stage, with a LOMC cartridge.  Thus the sensitivity of the EMIA stage to RFI cannot fairly be judged in this case.  Maybe Mike is comparing the EMIA devices collectively to the high gain phono section of his DarTZeel (assuming it has one).