What Cart. for a Infinity Black widow

Hi. The name is Dave Pogue, but that was taken here at Audiogon, so I'm stuck with initials. Haven't you changed the frame of reference here. Rwwear? I thought the comparison was simply between a new top-line Shure (which you called "mechanical") and an old Carnegie. And the original thread, way back when, was to help a guy choose a cart for his Black Widow. Certainly there are better carts out there, but for this particular application, I still think the Shure, for $200, has a hell of a lot to offer.

Rwwear: from your collection (I also collect 'tables, arms, cartridges) I can see you're open-minded and love analogue as I do. I don't think Dopogue was dissing your system so much as disagreeing with your assessment: I know he has mounted the Shure on a VPI JMW10.5 in a very impressive system like yours. Someone else on this thread went on about liquidness - and having owned a Kiseki Purpleheart Sapphire which had oodles of this - I submit that this is a coloration. And this is where a Shure shines: listen to violins on an MC and then listen to it on a Shure. On MCs violins sound burnished, too "liquid" to be violins. On a Shure it sounds very raspy and meaty, as violins do in life. It was this tiny issue - I was running the Shure on one 'table while running MCs on others - which I noticed and which increasingly drew my attention to it, until I was pretty well completely converted. If you look elsewhere in this forum, you will see that I have a Decca thread going, and so know that different cartridges have different strenghts. I plan on buying a few more MCs soon, as I collect them (I'm a total addict). But if I were forced to choose only one, despite the fact it does not do filigree detail like the better MCs or have the slam of a Decca, I would choose the Shure. One of the reasons is our definition of information. We tend to think only in terms of detail, and though the Shure is respectable here, many beat it. But the rhythmic interactions between the different components of a piece of music - right down to the timing of the rising intensities or softenings of a singer in counterpoint to other instruments - is simply more clearly discernible especially on a Shure, and on MMs in general. First the violins got to me, and then the timing issue. I've been drifting away from the MCs ever since, which while they advance, still do not do the timing thing I can so clearly hear, due to the Shure. Perhaps it simply does not work in your system - hard to believe as you have so many components - but I would be interested to hear if you too hear these two specific things (violins and timing). Perhaps I am dreaming, but I have heard it across many systems, and underground Shure lovers across America hear it as well. There is also that superb tonal correctness, which is important in making obvious what an instrument is. Is your Carnegie high-compliance, or am I confusing it with the Accuphase?

Rwwear; if there really is an issue of mechanical sound in your system using the Shure, there is something I do which does improve resolution (and perhaps "liquidity") quite a lot, something I do with all MMs the moment I get them and so I don't think about it: to glue the removeable stylus in place with three small (very small) dabs of glue: one in the middle (or one top and bottom, depending) and one on each side, while the assembly is fully in place (don't get any inside!). I use fast-drying epoxy-resin, which is more substantial than Crazy Glue, and which means the stylus asssmebly is easily removed come replacement day. All owners of MMs should do this: being standard practice in the days when removeable-stylus MMs were still respected, I think many of us have forgotten now.

Johnnantais, Do you mean the Shure stylus assembly is held rigidly bound in position with the glue, but the glue contact points can be broken by simple pulling away from the cartridge body when it is time to replace a stylus assembly? Do you need to wiggle the stylus assembly to break it free from the glue's grip? If there is a different definition, or meaning, please clarify.
Does the stylus assembly now act solely as a rigid continuation of the cartridge body, or is there some molecular absorption of resonance or vibration at the glue points?
Also, which brand of fast-drying epoxy resin do you use, as there are so many at hobby shops?
I first tried this with the laser assembly of my Cd player, and it works perfectly, preventing me from hearing any of that objectionable CD sound ;>) Now I'm ready to try it on my vinyl rig. If anything more goes wrong, I'll be reduced to FM tuner listening, with my family threatening to optimize that with just a touch of epoxy to the tuning knob!
Actually, thanks for conveying in such detail how you get things done.

I'm not sure about the compliance or not. It was a store demo that I got from a friend. I'll listen to the Shure again soon as I will be installing one in a customer's system. I usually have one of my own but I sold it to a customer that needed it. The SME arm that I have on my main TT is probably more suited to MCs though.
Have you had a chance to listen to the Walcot MM cartridge with the Shibata stylus? I bought some new old stock about a year ago and put one on my SP-10MK11 that I have at the store. But, I haven't listened to it critically in a good system.