What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

@lewm , Digital volume is very specific. 0 dB (0 dBFS) is the highest level achievable in a WAV audio file.  Digital volume controls are based on that standard. I have three independent ways of adjusting my gain structure and they all agree with each other perfectly as you would expect. In referring to dB most people are thinking of dB SPL. Where 0 dB is "the sound of a dead leaf hitting the ground in the fall." Anything quieter would be imperceptible. When I talk about how loud my system is playing I am referring to dB SPL as measured by a sound pressure level meter that in all likelihood is not very accurate.  When talking about signal volume I am referring to dBFS (decibels full scale)  I probably should have mentioned this earlier to get everyone on the same page. 

Another issue that frequently comes up is that digital volume controls "are inferior." This was true not all that long ago but now with 64 bit floating point processors the problems related to digital volume control such as loss of dynamic range have totally disappeared. You could lose over 1/2 the data and still be well above the highest sampling rates used.

As @rauliruegas will testify, digital audio opens up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to system management and understanding. 

@mijostyn That's fine by me. But do you really think I'm going to sit there and listen to 4 mistracking cartridges for 35 years? I will admit that I had one in a LP12/Ittok back in the 80s and it did mistrack. Perhaps your impression comes from that sort of mismatch. It's easy to carry a misconception based on legacy intel. However, I do not have that issue now and the speed, realism, and clarity of these cartridges can be breath-taking.

@mikelavigne Don't go! 🙂 One cannot allow blowhards to force capitulation. 

The Decca cartridges are something special.  My experience has been that even the “lowly” Decca London conveyed certain aspects of musical sound with a realism that no other cartridge I have owned could.  

Dear @mijostyn  : " channel balance as a gauge a 0.3 dB change will make a noticeable shift in the center image easily noticed by anyone. "

You are totally rigth and it does not need to be 0.3db but even 0.1db is noted.

My room/system image is dead centered and sometimes ( for several different reasons. ) that    " dead centered " shift an almost imperceptible to one side and that tell me that something is wrong down my system other that the LP recording that sometimes image is tiny shifted . 

Then that " shift " help me to make a check up to fix it and always with success due that I know very well my system links and nok where looking for.

@noromance  , tracking issues not only happens at macroscopic level where you listen to it but at microscopic levels too and cantilever-less cartridge designs have that microscopic issue at higher levels even that you are not aware of it and that higher tracking micro issue modulates/colored what we are listening. You can read here about:

http://pspatialaudio.com/analogy.htm

Now, I owned at least two cantilever-less Ikeda cartridges and yes some characteristics of the reproduction sound is just unique like its alivness and immediacy of the MUSIC  due that transients are faster than in a normal cartridge designs but as any audio subjects all has its trade-offs and each one of us choose the personal best trade-offs to achieve our targets. I sold the Ikeda's that just can't fulfill my targets and that's it.

R.