Is There An "Absolute" Best Cartridge?

Dear Alun: IMHO any additional gain stage like is need it in LOMC cartridges only can makes a signal degradation, normally in audio " less means more " but this is not what or can tell the whole " history ", maybe in other thread we could discuss deepest that subject.

Thank you to been here. What do you think on " the best " cartridge ever? makes sense to you?

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

I guess I will find out.

Got one of Raul's worlds best cartridges - Technics EPC-P100C-MK4 in transit.

Will be fun comparing it to my Ortofon A90 after it arrives.

Now Downunder - THAT is the best post here so far !

Dear Raul +++I learn that not all are/is already writed on high end Audio!+++

I think it is - problem is that it was written before the world wide web became second life for most audiophiles. Tons of invaluable technical information about audio related issues and topics have been written by dedicated gifted engineers and pioneers of audio during a time when high end was still the profession as well as the object of research and development of legions of trained and highly educated engineers and technicians.
And with the huge man power and financial resources of large companies behind them.
Those technical essays and papers are only in fragments and small portions available on the web so far.
Thus comes that many "facts" known 4 and 5 decades back are today in parts "new discoveries" by heroic audio afficionados today.
Open wide all doors of voodoo and niche-guru-ship.
The global village and its online platforms giving each and every audio voice its speaker's corner freely is no good substitute for the printed papers of the 1940ies - 1960ies.
There is no new in analog audio.
Everything was written already.
Much is lost and forgotten.
And most orchestras today do indeed manoeuvre in the dark ............ while believing that the dense fog around them is clear light leading to audio heaven.

Raul, As you know, I like what you are doing. And thru following in your footsteps (to a degree but making my own choices along the way), I am having more pure "fun" than ever with this hobby. I will always be grateful that you stimulated me/us to take a second look at this great class of cartridges. But any decent philosopher past or present would tell you that it is folly to argue from first principles what is "best". So I am kind of not with you in this case. (Also, I am jealous because I don't own a EPC P100C and can no longer get one.) It's perfectly ok to say that the Technics is the "best you have ever heard in your system". Why not leave it at that? What happens if you now audition the AKG P100LE (for one example, and which you told us you own but have not heard) and find it to be superior to the Technics? There are also some purportedly great Stanton/Pickering ultimate "low output" MMs that I don't think any of us have heard. I guess this is why Don Quixote did what he did.