Do You Play Or Save Your Best Cartridges

I play my best cartridge, a Lyra Skala, and keep a Clavis Da Capo and AT OC9 II as spares in the eventuality the Skala needs work or gives up the ghost.

what does a 10,000 dollar cartridge do better than a $1,000 one?

@grislybutter There are so many variable in analog playback, this will never be sufficiently answered. However at some point the price comes down enough that it dictates materials, design, and assembly choices which are less than optimal. It’s not that they can’t sound good in the right setup, it’s that something more expensive or exotic *could* sound better. At $1000:

• Aluminum pipe cantilever is almost a given. Boron cantilevers are very rare here. Cantilever has a big impact on sound. Aluminum is generally considered warmer, and boron more detailed / clean sounding.
• Neodymium magnets. Alnico / platinum / permendur / samarium-cobalt magnets are not seen at this price point. Magnet absolutely has a significant impact on the sound. Neodymiums are generally punchy but brash compared to the more velvety smooth sound from exotic magnets.
• Body material - noting exotic here; you’re lucky to get aluminum. But you’re more likely to get some kind of plastic, resin wood, or delrin. Bodies are a more subtle impact than magnet or cantilever, but still there.
• Coil and motor assembly. Being handmade, there is much variation in production. Many manufactures select the "best" finished motors for their higher end models. The lower grade motors get earmarked for the $1000 models :)
• Stylus - I’m not too hung up on stylus, as I think even a nude elliptical can sound exceptional. But it definitely NEEDS to be a nude shank, high quality diamond. Bonded tips suck.

You can certainly find used cartridges and "deals" for new cartridges at $1000 that sound awesome. But for me (and others) the "what if" drives us to try more and more exotic examples too. Yes - there are nuances, subtleties, and refinements that make the expense worthwhile (to us, sometimes). But a properly setup and matched $1000 "good deal" cartridge can definitely sound badass too :) In a 2nd system I’m now running a Benz Wood I got off here for $1000, and it really doesn’t give up THAT much to the exotic big rig (with the $10K+ cart). But the little Benz has definitely been provided the "right" partners in arm and phono stage - that’s absolutely crucial. The Ortofon Cadenza Red is another near-$1K cartridge I’ve really liked a lot in the past.

@mulveling @clearthinker

thanks! Sounds wild!

@terry9 I guess the rest of t he setup would be just as expensive

I still play a vintage cart (that's better than most reasonably priced stuff today). If it fails, it fails...eventually it will. In the meantime I will enjoy it.

A different one in my main system. And I have several others whose whereabouts I don't know. A drawer somewhere.

@grislybutter "I guess the rest of the setup would be just as expensive"

Unless you DIY. I like to budget for something pretty good, like a 10-20k turntable or a 5k tonearm, and see what I can do with that money. That’s led me to an air bearing TT with a very stiff air cushion in all three dimensions, and a superbly isolated motor which I may patent. That took me 3 years. Of fun.

Then I did the tonearm, again air bearing, linear tracker, another 3 years. I am currently experimenting with wands - I’ve had a sapphire tube on hold for 2 years because I have some useful thoughts on resonance control with a lightweight wand. So far, so good. I can adjust tangentiality (LT analogue of overhang) on-the-fly to 5 microns. VTA adjusts repeatably to 2 minutes of arc, azimuth also 2 minutes of arc. The only ’off-the-fly’ adjustment is VTF, which is adjustable to 10 mg.

When you have that much adjustability, you can get the most from a cartridge, and quite a lot it is, if the Mayajima and Koetsu are anything to go by. I’m fabricating a wand now for a Grado Lineage, we’ll see how that goes.

I think DIY is better than buying. It’s certainly a lot more fun.

DIY forever!!