Is There An "Absolute" Best Cartridge?

Dear Nandric, don't worry - I am peaceful and humanistic, despite my bad reputation...... ;-) ........

i hope you guys are able to do this; for the fun of it at least. and i have a suggestion as to a way to have a proper reference. i would love to be there, but Munich in May is not an option for me.

find some Lps with corresponding RTR 15ips master dubs which are the source of the Lps. then you have a reference which can reduce the degree of personal preference involved in the ranking. or, at least, have that be part of the process to sort out the 'truth' from the 'beauty'.

i've done this exercise a few times using the master tape as a reference and it causes one to have a slightly different viewpoint on the music.....as the tape has essentially no characteristic as a cartridge tends to have. we become enamored with an aspect of the cartridge 'sound' and the tape tends to expose that as 'coloration'.

my expectation would be the Lyra Olympos SL as the overall winner.....and closest to the RTR master tape.

Dear Downunder: May is to close for me, RMFA will be fine or better yet: México city and then Huatulco Harbors or Can Cun to take a healthy " refresh " . I can organize an audio-music-beach-Monte Alban/Teotihuacan-tour for a week for all of us.

We can have a " convention " type here and maybe begin/found the " International HE Audiophile Association " in favor of the AHEE.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Mikelavigne, while Syntax has 2 Olympos (one of them really great...) he knows very well that even among his cartridge line-up it has fierce competition which it can not outperform.
With the RTR we have the old problem again - it has to be played via a RTR machine and that again is not out of question (it too will add and/or deduct quality) as it too is just a tape-recorder (if a big one...) and aside from perfect aligned C-37 with full NOS set of tubes, I really do not want to listen to any of the other RTRs around - far from calling them a reference. A truly great cart/arm set-up careful aligned on a decent TT will outperform 99.99% of all RTRs around aside from the very best tube-based pro-machines of days gone by ( the solid state output stage-RTRs are only a pale shade of what a RTR can do).
But as long as we play the very same record on various set-ups we will have a good test routine with at least one constant ( according to I. Kant and R. Steiner this one constant is all be need to move the universe...) among those cherish audio variables.

Dertonarm,

regarding RTR; there is nothing wrong with a Studer A-820 playing thru a custom Cello solid state output electronics as a reference. or an Ampex ATR-102 playing thru the same electronics. while i agree that 70's and 80's RTR decks had marginal output electronics they had superior transports to earlier machines. mated with great output electronics they are hard to beat. again we come to 'sounds' verses music. i've heard the Cello circuit compared to tubed output electronics. the tubes were slow and thick....the Cello was alive and allowed the music to breathe.....but had a much lower noise floor and greater refinement than the stock Studer output electronics.

have you investigated newer RTR transports with improved ss output electronics?

i guess we all have our 'holy grail's' and nothing will separate us from them.

there are many great cartridges i've not been exposed to. maybe the Olympos SL can be surpassed. i've just not heard that myself.