What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

@daveyf

every forum has it’s warts and baloney factor. and i’m on the outside of that WBF tribe you describe. but i can’t disagree it exists. i push back against it occasionally.

most other forums are much more owner dominant than WBF. but it’s somewhat that way.

if i’m choosing the least messed up forum, that would be WBF for it’s respect for listening perspectives. it allows discussions to happen without constant assaults from left field as happens here. the ratio of content to distraction is better. many very serious minded audiophiles are there. smaller group, a bit more intimate. so it’s where i’m most at home. but it’s far from perfect.

yet the wild wild west of Audiogon has it’s attractions too. you just have to wear your iron underwear. it’s purely commercial so you have lots of ambulance chasing going on if you like that sort of thing. you can’t PM contact info. and the Audiogon interface is maddening. i barely tolerate it. i do like that i can post my system here. that has value to me.

have a nice day.

@mikelavigne   Mike, I would have agreed with you about WBF up until RR got involved. Then, I believe that the owner dominance became prevalent, far more so than any other forum i belonged to. It was that dominance, albeit more subtle than some I can think of, but still more prevalent, that ultimately turned me off the site. To that, the mods/gorts clearly had their favorite members, whom they let say/post just about anything, and the rest were quickly censored...not my idea of equitable. 

Here, we have far more equity with the mods and I think a wider and more open minded group. 

I have noticed also that at WBF the topics and threads have become incredibly boring and dry...nothing to go there for in any way. YMMV.

Have a nice day too.

Dear @mijostyn  : Yes, boron. An eropean  owner of the OPUS 1 posted this:

" Italian distributor of Air tight told me Opus 1 could be better than MSL platinum because being 30 anniversary of Air Tight they ask to do something very special,while MSL platinum change only the body and the stylus,but until you don't listen both nobody knows.

This opus 1 has an incredible bass and body,very clean,fast and deep and i think ..."

He listen in his CH current mode unit.

R.

@mijostyn  : I think that both cartridges performs at the same quality level where differences could comes by MSL designer MUSIC preferences against AT vocing preferences.

Maybe the main true difference is that MSL has low price.

R.

@rauliruegas  Trying to determine which cartridge sounds better than the other is really a fools errand in many cases. The ML and the AT are very good sounding cartridges, but the set up, the arm, the table, the downstream gear and numerous other variables are in play here. To state unequivocally that one is better than the other is, at least imho..and having heard both, impossible. The synergy of the match up of the cartridge to the other components is crucial…and is where I believe a lot of folks fall into the trap of making an incorrect finding. 
For example, there are folk who believe that all Lyra’s have a certain sound that they find unacceptable..these very same folk are placing the blame at the cartridge, when in fact, the blame should be placed elsewhere. Set up errors, tonearm incompatibility, phono stage incompatibility, etc.,