Is There An "Absolute" Best Cartridge?

Dear Dertonarm: IMHO when you are in " front " or have or design/build or whatever of " the best " ( any item, it does not matters which one. ) and you, me or other person does not like it this subjective fact means only that: that does not likes " the best " but does not and can't argue ( ok can but is useless to prove it. ) that " the best " is not " the best " only because I don't like it or because I'm " deaf " or because my music knowledge is poor or because my system has several limitations or because that hearing day I was out of mood or because I think that " the best " does not exist.

My opinion about is a way deep and extremely wide meaning that what you understand about. My language ( english ) limitations preclude to explain in a better way the whole subject.

I can understand that you don't like , after hearing it, a " the best " audio item but that fact in no way diminish that " the best " product.
Of course that if you made/make a test with say 100 different persons in a almost non-limited audio system and 97% of them say: I don't like it, then certainly that audio item is no " the best ".

Certainly too I can prove that an audio item is " the best " ( like this Technics one. ) if really is " the best ", we only need a controled and not biased live experiment/test.
I don't have the founds to do it but if any one out there is interested on it and support it in financial way then I take the challenge.

Daniel, IMHO we can't grow up if always think in the same " arcaic " way. If We want to be better/improve then we have to make things/think different to change the audio mediocrity that surrounded all of us.

I don't want to convince you or any one else that think that exist " the best " in all areas/subjects in our live but to be or to find " the best " is what give me the " gasolyne " to go a head in my life projects till I find that " the best ".
Several times ( to often. ) I can't meet " the best " but when I do/did the rewards are so amazing/outstanding that all my falls are worth to " suffer " for that " sole " find.

Yes, my way to " see " the life is a little different from yours and that's fine with me.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Dear friends: Finally I can post the Technics cartridge review with some ( not very good ) pictures. You can go inside here:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ranlg&1268864860

or make " click " on my moniker " reviews ".

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

If it were asked "Is there a best way to build a specific house", the conclusion is obvious. If rephrased as "build the ABSOLUTELY best house", then aesthetic opinion intrudes.

Seiji Ozawa or Fritz Reiner impart individual interpretation to a given composition, one is free to say he prefers either. Respected opinion is contingent to knowlegable justification. Until reasoned comparative analysis can demonstrate another cartridge being superior and although a larger sampling population would be appropriate before stating absolutes, Raul's assertion remains uncontested but not inviolate.

Regarding a prior post, I do appreciate your point. I know you said: "The cart in your own TT is the best one for you" (qualifier) "AT THAT TIME", but rhetorically, if one had two cartridges, does the second (like Schrodinger's cat) enter a cognitive limbo when stored, couldn't it still be possible to say the unused other is better?

Dear Raul, growing up doesn't necessary mean to leave archaic ways. We all try - some more some less - to make things important to us "better".
And - well, english isn't my mother language either and I can expres myself and my thought a hell of a lot better and more precisely in german.
To accept, that a device - which is NOT independent as such but part of a mechanical matched team (cartridge/tonearm) - can't be the solitary "best" is important to make any progress.
As long as cartridges have to be mounted in tonearms and as long as we will have different tonearms around, we can't have a single "best" cartridge.
I am familiar with the Technics cartridge you are referring to from the old days.
It performs very good in certain tonearms.
I have a different "best" cartridge, which I know can only work to its very best with very few tonearms - because of mechanical and dynamical interactions.
I too believe that I can "proof" this to about everyone coming to my listening room. But it is the very combination of a certain cartridge with a very certain tonearm which do form an almost perfect mechanical team.
Raul - seriously - is there a single "best" food, a "best" wine, a "best" car, a "best" novel, a "best" movie, a best "song", a "best" piece of music ??
One does not have to be into philosophy to accept that the definition and election of something "best" is a futile quest from the start.
Especially so in a area where any prospective "best" would be a matter of interactions with partners.
And then finally - there is the individual experience which is different with each of us.
No matter what "listening test" one would put up, you would have different people with different taste and different ideas about how the music the hear have to be and how they get to their respective brain and evokes the illusion.
Politicians try to tell us since 5000 years what is the "best" for us.
Marketing tries the same since about 120 years - with increasing intensity.
There is a quest for the best, - but there will never be such thing in human existence.
If you tell us that you want to build the best cartridge for a certain given tonearm - then most would agree: yes, - that's possible and a smart decision.

I think the EPC-100MK4 could have the best specs. of any other cartridge ever made,identical for each channel.Ruler flat frequency response,lowest tip mass,frequency response out to 120,000hz.Maybe it was the most precise cartridge ever built?And sure it is one of the best sounding,in the right tonearm.But like others have said it would be hard to claim anything in this hobby the absolute best.Too many different opinions on what actually sounds best to them.