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 You may surprise yourself. You don't need to do everything yourself - I sure don't. I buy off-the-shelf whenever I can. Prefer to just design and assemble, but sometimes a craftsman can't think of how to do it, or is too expensive. Why not try something easy? Like a cartridge? (joke). |
Heretic! Not that I've ever had one - what are they these days, 20k? And then there's the 25 years+ of aging ... About precision, it means you can adjust by ear to whatever sounds best. No-one, not even a Grado, can align a stylus to a cartridge body to within a few minutes of arc. And those are the sort of adjustments which I sometimes make, to allow for different records. |
