Most demanding passages for a turntable & system

Hi Raul, I have not had a lot of different cartridges over the years- maybe 8 or 9; but I had a Koetsu Black that played it wonderfully until it became a bit worn. It still sounded great with other records so I just put the Appassionta away. Now my current cartridge, the Benz plays it perfectly. These two have been my favorite cartridges. I wore the Koetsu down to a nub almost. I still have it and keep planning to get it retipped. I enjoy the Benz so much that I haven't gotten around to it. I think the Benz cartridges (I have had two of them) and the SME tonearms are a great combination. Couple that with a tube preamp and it is hard to leave the room.

Dear Tonywinsc: It's weird that the Koetsu Black I owned never been able to play with aplomb the cannon shots passages but with Koetsu there exist differences on samples cartridges.

Thank you for the info.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

I haven't played the 1812 in years, truth be told. I don't think that I have even tried it with my curent Benz. I think the bass was a little soft with the Koetsu; but then I think MC's cartridges in general do not develop that gut punching bass like MM's can. I'm thinking back to the early 80s and liked listening to Rock mostly back then. I heard the helicopter from Pink Floyd's The Wall on at top end system once in the 90s; but it was a CD. (Top end being Wilson Watt/Puppies and all ML electronics). My analog system does not quite get to the level of POP POP POP from the helicopter blades like that system did. (I do not have the CD). The closest is just recently with additonal isolation under my turntable.

I played the 1812. It was fun. One of the few times that a subwoofer would be nice to reproduce the sub-sonics of the cannon fire.

Dear Tonywinsc: Yes dedicated active subs are a must here, no one passive full range speakers can do it with aplomb.

Btw, there are some cartridges that can ride all the cannon shots with no " apparent " tracking trouble but the important subject here is not only if can ride it but the quality level of the reproduced sound and it's here where belongs the differences and where we really can aware of which one is a top tracker and not all the ones that ride those grooves we can considered: top trackers, I mean top trackers beteen top trackers because any cartridge that can ride those grooves are top trackers but inside that performance level exist the top top trackers.

When you heard those grooves under the control of a top top tracker the experience is unique and non-imaginable!.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.