Interface: Cartridge-Preamp or Cart-Tonearm?

"most cartridges are compatable with most arms these days".
I suppose this is true but compatibility is one thing and best match for the particular listener and his/her system is another. It is almost like saying that all records are compatible with all turntables. Doesn't give us much, really. We are talking about fine tuning and finding the best possible combination.

you are right, i was referring to mechanical compatability, not character synergy.

what i'm saying is that if you get the best possible arm, then it will always synergize with a cartridge that is properly designed.

the pitfall is having an arm which might be limiting due to a sound signature which requires balancing. and my point was to get the best arm so any cartridge will be optimized. forget about trying to balance color with color. at the end of the day you are just throwing roadblocks in front of the musical message....and veiling the sound.

i agree that there are arms and cartridge combinations which are special for various reasons. but the highest performance will always be with the least distorted products, which do the least to the sound.

If I sense a theme, it would seem that money spent on the finest arm one can afford would be step one. The logic I infer from the thread is that a cartridge upgrade can always come later --as one learns how to fine tune the front end, and perhaps even listen with better informed ears-- but the arm is a pivotal link, not to be "settled for" or compromised upon.

Does that seem to be the consensus?

While I take cabling to be highly important, my amplifier ICs are hard wired (partly to eliminate extra, image-degrading hardware in the signal path, and partly because I have what I consider a very fine IC wire in Furutech's best), there is nothing I can do --or at present want to do-- to change it.

That would leave the phono pre as an object of attention, except that --again by intention-- the phono pre is built into the system and most satisfactory at present. In my case the counsel you offer, Mike, makes most sense. First because it's a place that I can make an easy accommodation of your advice, and second because everything else upstream is, for the time being, completely satisfactory.

If I were to buy a Talea tonearm, what cartridge would work with it at a $1500 price point? (I know that's not exactly how this thread started, exactly...)

Thanks very much for your outstanding support and shared experience. I am grateful.

David

Did I miss it or you told us nothing about your table?
I certainly would not put $5k or whatever it is tonearm on $3k table not to mention the table/arm match Dover talked about. Unless of course you intend to upgrade the table soon as well.

If I were to buy a Talea tonearm, what cartridge would work with it at a $1500 price point? (I know that's not exactly how this thread started, exactly...)

honestly, i do not have much experience with new $1500 cartridges, either retail list or 'street price'.

i have an MM cartridge i really like (Raul helped me get it), an Azden YM-P50VL, which is on one of my Reed 2P's, which plays way above it's $250 list price. they are scarce and i paid $400 for it. it is likely competitive with $2500 list price cartridges i have heard.

i also have an $1100 Miyajima Labs Premium Be mono cartridge on my Talea series 1 arm which is amazing and also betters my $11k Lyra Olympos SL and my A90's on most mono pressings.

i might recommend looking for a used Dynavector XV-1s in the low $2k neighborhood if you can find one with some life left in it; they are an outstanding all around cartridge which i have owned. a used vdH Colibri is another consideration for maybe $1500--$1800, i've owned 7 of them. however; they are the Jeckle/Hyde of cartridges and very edgy when not happy.

i could list a few new cartridges in that 'around $1500' price range but it would be only thru reputation and not first hand knowledge. investigate it for yourself with a search here and on the vinyl forum on audioasylum.

i own 2 Ortofon A90's, which are now sold out. if you can possibly stretch to $3k-$4k someplace and can lay your hands on one of those you really cannot do any better and i can tell you it is world class on a Talea.

i'm sure Raul could (and has) write(n) pages of cartridge recommendations.

good luck.