Ha!, the worlds best cartridge is the one I’m listening too now. The others don’t matter. =)
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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.
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@normansizemore please inform us what cartridge you are listening to now. |
@lewm , not at all Lew. I just got the tracking number on the MC Diamond. It will be delivered tomorrow. It is a higher impedance cartridge than the MSL, 6 ohms, so I shall see how big the drop of in gain is. I use the MSL on the lowest gain setting and there are 4 at 3 dB intervals. The signal to noise ratio won't be as good, but I can't imagine it won't be tolerable. What is the highest impedance cartridge you have used? |
I have used the Audio Technica ART7 (0.12mV output, 12 ohms internal R), the ZYX Universe (0.24mV output, 4 ohms internal R), and the Ortofon MC2000 (.05mV output, 2 ohms internal R) into the BMC MCCI Signature ULN (phew, long name!). The gain structure with the ZYX is fine at 0db setting, with the AT, it blooms at +7db, which is too much for the ZYX. With the MC2000, the jury is out, either 0db or +7db, probably the former. Note that the MC2000, with a voltage output about half of the ART7, in theory it makes much more current than the ART7, because of lower internal R. But then too, the MCCI has a finite input impedance which also is a factor as the internal R of the cartridge approaches, equals, or is lower than the input impedance of the stage. It’s not that the cartridges don’t sound good with the excessive gain setting options; it just becomes overwhelming at some point. That system is out of commission for the moment; I have a tube problem in one of the Atma-sphere monoblocks. It has to go to my workbench for diagnosis. Which is why I cannot yet deliver a verdict on the optimal setting for the MC2000. The MCCI offers 0, +7, +11, and +14db options for gain, if memory serves. You set gain using jumpers inside the chassis, which is a bit of a pain if you’re changing cartridges all the time. |
@lewm I have to say I'm amazed that you have had the continuing patience to deal with the 7241 power tubes! We don't modify any of our amplifiers to use that tube since most people don't have the patience to deal with them. |
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