Do You Play Or Save Your Best Cartridges
I suspect I am like many here, I have a small collection of cartridges. Until recently I would keep a casual playing cartridge set up and I would save my "good" cartridges for evening listening sessions where I am focusing on listening to music at the listening chair. I always had a casual cartridge mounted on an arm, maybe an Audio Technica OC9 III or something along those lines. These days its either an Ortofon MC3000 II or MC5000.
Earlier this year I finally decided to use the DAC in my Trinov pre amp, and this involved getting a subscription to Roon, and hardwiring the computer and preamp to the router with CAT 6 ethernet cable. The sound is remarkably good, to the point where this can easily be my casual listening format.
I almost wonder if its necessary to have a casual cartridge. Or should I just play my best ones as often as I want and bite the bullet and know I am getting a new diamond fitted every few years.
Anyone else go through this kind of decision process?
@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!! |
