What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

Dear @reimarc : The ART 1000 is an excellent selection. Audio Technica has over 60 years designing and building LOMC and MM cartridges, I own and owned almost all models from the humble AT95 to any top one but the ART 1000.

No one AT cartridge I listened in my system and other systems never sounded bad and the top ones always great.

The ART 1000 is almost a " jewel " and an a design achievement and very good tracker due to its around 18cu in compliance. Good and here what an owner posted somewhere about:

" The best sounding cartridge I have ever had purchased. I like it better then my Air-Tight PC-1 Signature and the Benz LP. Excellent price for a phono cartridge of this sound quality! "

That Air Tigth was manufactured by MSL that @mijostyn recomended. Btw, mijos the AT has 3 ohms impedance and a good candidate for you at a just ridiculous price against your other cartridge selections.

I'm sure that if the AT ART 1000  price tag will says 20K this cartridge will be at any top system but unfortunatelly its price is only 5K and those gentlemans just do not turn their eyes to " see " it, unfortunatelly for all of them.

R.

Dear @mikelavigne  : I posted to you way before the latest post:

" and I’m not telling I’m rigth and only will describe some " facts " that I found out .."

Kind regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

@rauliruegas 

own and owned almost all models from the humble AT95 to any top one but the ART 1000

So you never heard or touched the ART 1000? Yet:

The ART 1000 is almost a " jewel " and an a design achievement and very good tracker due to its around 18cu in compliance.

You know about the tracking ability of this cartridge based only on the printed CU spec? 

Modified Cartridges are much more fitting as a Subject within this Thread, than the lengthy 'got of on a tangent' Digital / Vinyl Source discussions and is definitely much more fitting that the Ammunition Cartridge put forward.

@reimarc Is your reference to a Gyger Styli the FGS and was it used to replace the MicroRidge Styli. I know the FGS, when attached to the Thin Boron Rod on the Cadenza Black is found to be a very attractive design by those who have selected the modification during a refurb.         

your love affair with balanced circuits is legendary. are you wrong about them? no. are balanced circuits the ’main thing’ about how circuits might perform? no.

balanced circuits = one advantage....but not the whole ball game....which is what you are saying. and that cannot be known. we all can have an opinion about it though.

the best performing systems i have heard up till now have not used balanced circuits. which proves nothing either. since that aspect of a system is not dominant in it’s performance....one way....or another.

@mikelavigne 

(emphasis added)

My comments were about balanced line operation- the use of balanced cables in audio. Not so much about balanced circuits in audio equipment (that is a different conversation which I avoided).

That balanced lines when supported by AES48 are superior than any RCA connection is both measurable and audible. There is more than one advantage. Since I don't know which you were referring to I'll name a few:

* no ground loops since ground is ignored and used for shielding only

(this means if you get a ground loop with balanced lines AES48 isn't being supported)

* prevents coloration caused by the interconnect cable

* lack of colorations (including high frequency roll off) allows for longer cable lengths.

* since the crux of the operation lies with the associated equipment, the cable itself can be quite inexpensive

* Since the associated equipment will have a high Common Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR) noise impinged on the interconnect cable is rejected at the input of whatever its driving. This isn't possible with a single-ended connection so you get lower noise.

OK I've listed 5 advantages and there are more.

My recommendation as always with this sort of thing is to try it. Phono cartridges are already a balanced source and most tone arms are wired balanced so this is really about the interconnect cable and what is receiving it. SUTs, being transformers, can run as a balanced input quite easily with very high CMRR values. Their output can be single-ended (this is why transformers are good at converting from one to the other). So this would be an easy thing to try.