Skeptics believe:cartridge makes a HUGE difference

I had a Transfiguration Orpheus that sounded wonderful in my Triplanar. One day one channel was dead for no reason so I had to send it back. In the meantime I had no tunes.

Jonesing, I realized that I had a brand-new Grado Green (a $35.00 cartridge) sitting in a box. 'Why not try it?' I thought... the Triplanar is very adjustable and I knew that effective mass is a big deal with Grados (which is why they don't work in the Graham 2.2 which I had for quite a while...). So I went through the setup procedure and to my surprise the cartridge tracked everything I threw at it effortlessly.

The only issue I ran into was that it needed loading, after some experimentation I loaded it at about 10K ohms, after which the only way I could tell it from the Transfiguration was due to the fact that the Grado had higher output.

The lesson was that getting the cartridge to track correctly is far more important than what cartridge it actually is. If your amp has any marginalities in accomplishing that task with your cartridge you are going to hear differences (and the results will be all over the map). So I place the tone arm as number 1 in the hierarchy, the turntable number 2 and the cartridge last.

The lesson was that getting the cartridge to track correctly is far more important than what cartridge it actually is

That is BULL'S EYE!

Agree with Atmasphere, for similar reasons.

I've compared my $150 MM with LOMCs priced from $500 to $10,000 (also on a TriPlanar, on a $6K TT and playing through an $8K Doshi Alaap phono stage).

In this setup, the MM at least matches the performance of any LOMC that retails for less than $1K, maybe $2K. Some $3K+ LOMCs outplay it and my favorite $8K cartridge buries it, but this MM holds its own against any cartridge that costs less than TEN TIMES its price.

OTOH, whenever I mount a really good LOMC on a cheap TT or tonearm, the sonics are intolerable. Super-revealing cartridges expose any flaws or weaknesses in the equipment that supports them.

Upgrading a TT, tonearm or phono stage rarely disappoints. Upgrading a cartridge often can, as when it reveals the limitations of related equipment.