What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?


I believe that a cartridge and a speaker, by far, contribute the most to SQ.

The two transducers in a system.

I bit the bulllet and bought a Lyra Atlas SL for $13K for my Woodsong Garrard 301 with Triplanar SE arm. I use a full function Atma-Sphere MP-1 preamp. My $60K front end. It is certainly, by far, the best I have owned. I read so many comments exclaiming that Lyra as among the best. I had to wait 6 months to get it. But the improvement over my excellent $3K Mayijima Shilabi was spectacular-putting it mildly.

I recently heard a demo of much more pricy system using a $25K cartridge. Seemed to be the most expensive cartridge made. Don’t recall the name.

For sure, the amount of detail was something I never heard. To hear a timpani sound like the real thing was incredible. And so much more! 
This got me thinking of what could be possible with a different kind of cartridge than a moving coil. That is, a moving iron.

I have heard so much about the late Decca London Reference. A MI and a very different take from a MC. Could it be better? The World’s Best? No longer made.

However Grado has been making MI cartridges for decades. Even though they hold the patent for the MC. Recently, Grado came out with their assault on “The World’s Best”. At least their best effort. At $12K the Epoch 3. I bought one and have been using it now for about two weeks replacing my Lyra. There is no question that the Atlas SL is a fabulous cartridge. But the Epoch is even better. Overall, it’s SQ is the closest to real I have heard. To begin, putting the stylus down on the run in grove there is dead silence. As well as the groves between cuts. This silence is indicative of the purity of the music content. Everything I have read about it is true. IME, the comment of one reviewer, “The World’s Best”, may be true.
 

 

mglik

@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., 

A very detailed listening session described in an articulate way… dava seems to check the most boxes.