What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

Cartridges are in their very nature fragile and the most careful of individuals has a user error within them, as we are fallible.

I not only know the Stories, I know individuals who are the Story, when a £4-5K cart' is exposed to the moment of lack of finesse, the sick feeling goes to the core, and then there is the repair bill to receive as the final bitter pill to swallow. 

Encouraging individuals to experience items they may not be used to in any great capacity is not a bad thing, their confidence will grow through the disciplines being learned for the handling and the interaction.

Making an ease of access to extremely expensive fragile items, for those with a wanting skill set and lack of confidence around Cart's, such as the types assumed to be added to a selected itinerary of Cartridges as home trial demo' items.

Where the method to acquire is seemingly using mail order and forum support as the only guidance, might lead to 'ends in tears' stories, if a certain type of user takes a punt on a discounted Cart' as a Trial Period.   

Finding an inroad to being able to offer a Cart' at a 'Trade Price' or 'Near As', is looking the safer bet, as the individual can seek out a Cart' that is off interest, get it demoed through a Professional Service, 'if available', and shortlist it for a time when they would like to commit to a purchase.

If when monies are to be spent, and they are still attracted to one of the items in an itinerary available from a Member of this forum, then all well and good, especially if the discounted price is covering a Warranty and Aftersales Support that is matching that from a Dealership. This seems to work, as the Buyer will have confidence in their decision being made, and not feel they are lumbered with something they are not really wanting if an unwanted damage happens.  

Plenty of Permutations to be considered when devising such schemes.  

you well know that the remaining members at WBF are all buddies of Steve or worse, Ron. They all follow the same guru and believe the same old BS that the guru pushes. Horns rule, and gear that is non-resolving and as bright as the sun is looked up to, probably because these folks have lost their high frequency hearing years ago!

@daveyf I'm active over there; AFAIK I'm not on the inside there but no-one messes with me, which isn't to say we always agree. I've heard the story about inside buddies or something like that about that site before but I really don't know what that means. I've been on there nearly from its inception. I'm assuming your post above is a bit hyperbolic.

@solypsa , Yes, I have and recently. I ordered a pellet grill from the BBQ Guys, a Memphis Grill. The crate was dented in one corner. I took a picture of the box with the delivery person standing next to it. I then dissected the crate taking pictures along the way. There was over $700 in damage. Memphis grill had the parts to me in three days I gave the itemized receipt to the the freight company and had a check two weeks later. You have to be right on top of it or you can get screwed for sure.

@atmasphere , daveyf hyperbolic? Not on your life. We all know your hearing is in the trash by 8 kHz😁

Dear @mijostyn  : I know that rigth now you are enttilted with the very low impedance cartridges and current mode phonolinepreamps and that you really like your MSL.

Things are and I could think you already " hear "/read about  Top Wing cartridges that time to time few audiophiles posted about in Agon and I just remember it and maybe is " your " time to listen it, maybe not is up to you.

Here two reviews and somewhere I read that outperforms MSL: who really knows?. First the top of the line and then the next down step:

I am a believer when it comes to expensive cartridge purchases to be only from a authorized dealer. In my case, after I had bought the cartridge from my local dealer, I noticed after about a week that the cantilever was skewed. My dealer agreed and took the cartridge back to the manufacturer’s rep for correction under warranty, which was done. BUT If i had bought a gray market cartridge, I believe I would have been in the cold when an issue like this occurs.

@atmasphere My experience at WBF was typical of a lot of forums that are run by hobbyists as literal soap boxes for their POV’s. I contributed a lot of content there initially, but was soon in their bad books, simply because I did NOT agree with their guru and his BS. My thread about the new Alsyvox speakers drew the most ire, mainly due to the fact that the resident horn lovers felt threatened. To that, the agenda of the owners is pretty clear. Personally, I think the while forum is now a total joke, so if that’s hyperbolic..so be it.