Anybody with an expensive TT try this????

I have a Triplanar Mk7 on the Atma-Sphere 208 'table. My regular cartridge lost a channel, and for about 2 weeks the only thing I had was a Grado Green, which is not expensive at all.

It tracked fine in the Triplanar- so I tortured it with a few tracks and it held up well. It didn't sound as good- things were a bit more forward and tilted to the highs (although there was plenty of bass energy). So I experimented with loading and it calmed down a lot! In fact I was able to enjoy the music without dealing with a lot of artifact once it was loaded (about 12,000 ohms on my system BTW).

I still like my regular cartridge better, but really, the difference was not as profound as I had expected. I think that a lot of people think less of cheap cartridges simply because they never hear them with top end arm/table/preamp/etc.

Mike, in order to get away with that, the same rules of compatibility with your arm apply- effective mass, mechanical resonance, that sort of thing. IOW you have to apply the same care in selection for your arm like you do with an expensive cartridge, or the results will not be so good.