Is There An "Absolute" Best Cartridge?

LOMC are always superior (in long term listening) to MM/MI when the arm that is used has an "indexed" micrometer head height adjustment and the operator knows how to "fine" tune the arm.

Here we go again, another of Rauls posts where HE ALLREADY KNOWS THE ANSWER. He has thankfully told us early on, so we can all leave now... because, our opinions do not matter!

The only thing we can hope for is that he designs a world beating cartridge himself. Then we can hear about that for another 500 self absorbed, chest beating posts. Where there is no alternative to Rauls absolute.

"Are there serious contenders to the Technics cartridge?, not really: I like a lot Allaerts Formula One, Goldbug Ms. Brier, Audio Technica ATML 180-OCC, Azden YM-P50LV, Ortofon A-90, Lyra Olympos, Sonus Dimension 5, Van denHul Colibri, Dynavector XV-1s , Grado Amber The Tribute, Coralstone, Signet TK10 ML-Mk3 or Grado RS II ( I don't heard/hear yet the XV-1t. ) but IMHO no one of them ( unfortunately ) share the Technics cartridge performance new level characteristics.,"
Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul."

Bob
PHP143
If the first 100db suck, why continue?

I'm all the more inclined to accept Raul's discernment of Technics in view of his long restraint in crowning a winner through some 1800 posts to his MM/MI thread. Of course one must judge these things for oneself. It is therefore unfortunate that few will be able to acquire and compare Technics. IMO the only controversial point is whether it is worth writing a painstaking & thoughtful review of a collectible classic rather than a current product. However to this point, many other top NOS MM/MI cartridges are still available for those who trouble to seek them out at a fraction of the cost of a top MC. Raul, thanks for your archeological dig of analog history! To the majority who will never cross this psychological devide, spend money to express yourself!

Raul, a point you make that I particularly grasp is that after all their virtues are considered, most MM/MI remain challenged (relative to MC) to produce realistic tonality and delineation of deep LF. Of my samples top Azden does the least harm in this area. If Technics equals Azden in other respects while surpassing it in LF repro then it must be great.

Raul constantly says to try these things yourself and is open to other peoples input.

of course there's not... unless we're all going to buy the same source components, same amplification components, same speakers, same cables and set up in the same room. Oh yeah, and I guess we'd have to clone Raul's auditory cortex and transplant it into each of our temporal lobes...

There are so many variables in audio, ESPECIALLY analog! I have no idea how anyone deems anything as "absolute best".

Here's the thing - and I've expressed this before to Raul directly - I applaud what he's done. He's brought to light a ton of older MM/MI cartridges that most have forgotten and given detailed reviews of what he hears from each of them. I get that and appreciate it.

What I don't get is how so many people can line up and just accept it all as gospel. Again, I'm not denigrating the great work Raul has done - I'm just saying, if I'm going to separate my cash from my bank account on an audio purchase, I make damn sure I've got more than one person giving me an opinion on the item.

When I read dozens of people saying "the Shure V15-VMR has a razor flat frequency response" that gets my attention. When I get one person declaring something as being the "best ever, period" that gets me shaking my head in wonder.