Anybody with an expensive TT try this????


Have you tried a cheapo cartridge (less than $50)? And how was the sound? Was it terrible or did it make you question, are the $1000 cartridges really worth it? Mike
blueranger
The $1000 cartridges are worth it. At least those that continue to receive top reviews are. I would rather have $1000 Shelter cartridge on a cheap turntable than a $50 cartridge on a Rockport turntable.
Not THAT cheap ($50) but I agree that under-$1K carts* can sound exceptionally good on great tables thru great phonostages. The turntable is key, IMHO, with the tonearm/phonostage second and the cartridge third.

* Examples (what I'm using now): Ortofon 2M Black, Shure V15VxMR w/JICO stylus, Denon DL-103 w/Soundsmith retip and Uwe pod.
I believe it goes both ways. I have tried cartridges on my turntable that range in price from a few dollars, like $10-12 on eBay, to $10,000. What I noticed is that some really inexpensive cartridges which sound great on a lesser turntable might sound awful on a good turntable that sells at the high-end of the market. The ADC TRX series of cartridges come to mind. On an inexpensive turntable, say around a few hundred dollars, they sound pretty good, but on a turntable where manufacturing cost is no object they are overly bright, harsh and strident. You would not stay in the room through a single track. On the otherhand, the Technics 205C-IIX, a moving magnet cartridge that I bought NOS for $200, stands tall among moving coils that cost thousands, at least on my turntable. That cartridge sounded not bad, but average on an inexpensive turntable. I could give you a lot of examples, but I have the suspicion that when better equipment is involved the turntable, the tonearm, the phonostage and the wire come into play in a very big way that you don't see in most environments where more commonplace setups are found. I would even go as far as to say listening for these differences can be an indicator of sorts to determine the quality of a better turntable because such a turntable should be musical and revealing enough to blatantly show the weaknesses or the strengths of a given cartridge.

So, my take is that it is a case where you mileage will most certainly vary, rather than may vary.

Win
Saskia Turntables
Depends, to a large extent, on the tonearm.

A $50 cartridge on a terrific tonearm will sound better than a $500 cartridge on a poor tonearm.

IMO
I have a ClearAudio Victory H cartridge, $2K in its new day, in a Aries/10.5/SDS etc. About two years ago I installed a Shure 97 NOS in the rig to see exactly what the difference would be. I purchased the 97 almost twenty years ago for $35. Was there $1,965 of difference? No. Maybe I need a $20,000 table to make the ClearAudio sound $2K in difference. Could be the ClearAudio is really not that much better and I need a $5K cartridge. I don't think I will go there.