Is There An "Absolute" Best Cartridge?

Dear Driveman: 150pf. I think was in the cartridge review:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ranlg&1268864860

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Regards, Raul, Dertonarm: Rousseau was sometimes thought of as being more emotional than intellectual. An audiophiles' appreciation for music might be considered in similar terms.

Aristotles' "There is no accounting for taste" gives recognition to the integration of the sensitive and sensible in the individual. As there is no justification for mediocrity other than overwhelming force of circumstance, when tempered with economic, enviornmental and aesthetic concerns, these can be useful measures when examining the range between what an audiophile wants and what that audiophile needs. Arbitors can expect to sometimes find differing opinions from informed and knowledgable others. This was eliminated five centurys ago by appointed authority adopting the policy of "volonte' absolue", a factor in the reformation, the refutation of the flat earth/center of the universe beliefs, numerous revolutions and ultimately, authority by selection.

Raul, I regard you as intelligent, informed and progressive through what you have previously written, but insistence in absolutes places evaluation in (re. Nandric) the position of being either totally true or totally false. Again, I have no foundation for disagreement with your selection of the EPC-100m4 as the absolute best you have yet experienced but even my minimally enlightened perception still respects the validity of informed opinion and well examined personal choice by others. The only absolute I'm aware of I'd prefer to avoid.

As semantics make my head hurt almost as much as Nandric's metamathmatics, I'll say no more in this matter, except thanks for your generous sharing of information and energy. Peace, and of course, enjoy the music.

Dear Timeltel, My point was only that, sorry, 'unrestricted
use' of the quantifier 'all' causes many problems. In fundation of mathematics we all know, I assume, the set-theoretic paradoxes. So the mathematicians are very careful with,eh,quantification. But you already mentioned the paradoxes.I don't realy understand why Raul is so persistent with this 'absolute'. We get in this way some Kantian 'a priory truths' and I don't belive in any a priori truth. But I am sure that Raul will announce at once to his friends in his thread about the MM carts if he
discover some cart that is even better then EPC 100.
So he obviously have some other understanding of 'the best'
then some other have. One can pursuit the complete understanding with the other but why should we think that
this is possible?
Regards,

I applaud Raul's work, enthusiasm and sharing nature.
There is nothing wrong with the bold statement he has made, if anything it shows he has cojones de acero and demonstrates how good that cartridge is!
Those that detract or refuse to accept are not of the spirit of making this hobby fun enlightening and progressive. If Raul is wrong, he'll probably be the first to recognize it and will come forth and make a new announcement.
That link I posted a few threads back was for real and can help explain present society, do not take it for a joke.

I picked up a NOS Technics EPC-P100C-MK4 and have been playing it for about a week now. I might disagree with some of Raul's rants, but this cartridge is absolutely wonderful.
Just looking at the straight frequency response is very impressive. It lookes like someone has used a ruler!

This cartridge has amazing transparency and see thru nature all the way from the mids and upper frequencies. There is zero brightness or any tendancy for edge. The bass is different in that it does not have the weight of say my Ortofon A90. This has got better over time so will no doubt get better.

It is quite amazing how good my 30 year old Exclusive P3 DD table with 28 year old EPC-P100C-MK4 is sounding. You do begin to wonder how far analog front ends have come in 30 years if at all.

BTW, I prefer tubes over any SS amps & phono stages I have heard in my system. Not there is anything wrong with SS, if it floats your boat.

cheers