What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

The one that sounds best to you is the best. 
 

That said, I use a Koetsu Onyx. I have a Koetsu Rosewood Signature as a backup. I use a Grado for 78s. 

@dogberry 

I expect we all know that volume influences how we perceive sound, and are aware of the warning that a constant desire to turn the volume up indicates there is something inadequate in the sound chain.

That one is new to me and in fact I have found just the opposite to be true.  When a system excels I find that the levels can get to the point where you don't realize how loud it is until you try to have a conversation over the music.  Since this is about cartridges, Lets assume we have two level matched cartridges with one showing slightly more tracing distortion than the other.  Many people will find the one with more distortion sounds louder and more detailed while the lower distortion one sounds dark and closed in.  However if you bump the level of the 'murky' cartridge a dB or two then suddenly it excels and reveals the flaws of its higher distortion brethren.

dave

 

@dogberry , you are absolutely right that in order to make comparisons in audio, volume levels need to be matched perfectly. The louder signal between sources of almost equal quality is always going to sound better even if you can't tell that it is louder. Where you are off a bit is in magnitude. In order to fool the human ear you only need a 0.3 dB difference in volume. That is far below the resolution of any common measurement device. If comparing electronic gear this can be done with a test signal and an accurate meter or oscilloscope. In comparing program sources like different pressings of an album it gets much tougher. Using a sound pressure meter is really no better than using your ears which can get you within a dB if you are good at it but never under 0.3 db unless you are very lucky. This is one main reason why you see so many varied opinions on comparisons.  Overlay the biases we all develop and you have a real mess. We can use our ears to evaluate equipment to a degree if the differences are severe enough. If not then you have to be very careful.

@pindac. As I stated above a dB meter is not near accurate enough to make these comparisons fair. I have one which I use to make sure I am not damaging my ears when I crank it. With cartridge comparisons you can use a test record and a meter or oscilloscope on the output of the phono stage. Comparing program sources is a much more difficult proposition. An oscilloscope with a peak hold function could do it but the set up would be very cumbersome and to prove what? I prefer just listening to the version I like which is precisely what the vast majority of us deplorables do:-)

I agree with Intact as regards the perceived benefit of increasing SPL when the SQ is very high. If SQ is perceived as poor, increasing SPL makes mediocre SQ less tolerable, in my experience.

Dear @intactaudio : " When a system excels I find that the levels can get to the point where you don’t realize how loud it is until you try to have a conversation over the music. Since this is about cartridges, Lets assume we have two level matched cartridges with one showing slightly more tracing distortion than the other. Many people will find the one with more distortion sounds louder and more detailed while the lower distortion one sounds dark and closed in. "

 

I can’t be more in agreement that with your post where other gentlemans were in agreement by 2018 in these posts:

 

"" Unfortunately accentuated dynamics and resolution all too often mean a really nasty peak at the HF. ""

 

 

""" but be careful not to delude yourself.
Audiophiles .... tend to get seduced by what are essentially deviations from what the real listening experience provides- such as excessive detail, ability to resolve supposed room artifacts etc. etc.
These effects, in my substantial experience of live performances, just do not exist in a live listening environment, """

 

Just when I started to post in Agon and from there today I posted my first hand experiences through different times in different threads and with different audio item devices but all of those experiences are directly related to what intact audio shared:

 

the very first time that I remember to was around 30 years ago when I made a change of cables in my tonearm output where the IC was made of cooper and I changed by VDH silver cable. I did it with out any tiny SPL change. My first impressions were " terrible " and a heavy disappointment because with the silver cable suddenly the sound turn out DULL/no life. I make 3-4 times the cable change in the same listening session and at the end I left connected the VDH silver cable.

Next day and with out changing the SPL I listening with that silver cable by 4-5 hours in a row till I understand ( that was my first time I really was aware what in hell were happening down there. ) that what I was listening in reality was not a DULL sound but a way better quality sound level with " huge " lower distortions. That was the first time that I been aware too the benefit of the cable change for achieve too a lower system NOISE FLOOR.

Other experiences in exactly the same way ( with out changing SPL. ) and you can read it in my capacitor thread ( tech talk forum. ) where I posted the thread looking for help by other technical very good audiophiles knowing that my knowledge level about were lower than I imagine and I was a " follower " when talk about the best capacitors: things were that after some time in the thread I found out that the forbidden Wima/Vishay caps are the best caps ever. Obviously that all those gentlemans told me everything you could thing against me but one of those gentlemans took my challenge and he change ( somewhere in his system. ) his Jantzen expensive caps ( fancy caps that I owned too. As a fact I owned almost all fancy caps: Duelund, Jupiter, Mundorf, cooper tefon V-caps, and the like. I tested the Wima/VIshay either in electronics in a way critical place and at my speakers crossovers. ) for a 8.00 dollars Wima caps and after 2 weeks he posted that he did not likes the sound because was a DULL sound with out LIFE. He was missing, with out been aware, the Jantzen developed high distortions. Other gentlemans that already experienced the Wima supported that DULL sound and obviously all of them just do not like the natura/neutral color of live MUSIC but like high colored sound just like many of you including Mike Lavigne.

Is it my system a DULL syatem? no but the other way around and with very very low system noise floor.

Another experience was and is when I changed the SPL attenuators in my Essential SS Phonolinepreamp where those Swiss made attenuators mechanism were builded with true hole resistors where the signal pass through only one of those resistors at each SPL positions. Well, I changed both stereo pots ( my unit is dual mono fully balanced. ) by same mechanism but with SMD resistors and guess what?:

the difference was night and day and was nigth and day inside in a very high resolution system. Here the system noise floor that was truly low gone and goes even lower, just amazing when distortions goes out of each single link in any room/system chain.

Yes, now I can listen my system with higher SPL with out feeling that my ears are damage in any way, of course that I don’t listen to very high SPL.

 

All those experiences were posted more than once in the forum. So the gentlemans that insist in that I have to listen the Dava I will not because I already know that is full of developed distortions.

My speakers are 95db sensitivity level and attenuators fully opened I can put my ear at 2cm. from the tweeters and I can't listen nothing , no single sound/noise.

 

All these kind of experiences are the ones that permit me to said @mikelavigne that his Dart meter peacks with the cartridge that were 95db against only 40db with the digital medium were only heavy distortions that he likes a lot against digital in the Dizzy 4 LP.

 

That’s why I alway finish my posts with this:

 

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.