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What is the “World’s Best Cartridge”?

I believe that a cartridge and a speaker, by far, contribute the most to SQ.

The two transducers in a system.

I bit the bulllet and bought a Lyra Atlas SL for $13K for my Woodsong Garrard 301 with Triplanar SE arm. I use a full function Atma-Sphere MP-1 preamp. My $60K front end. It is certainly, by far, the best I have owned. I read so many comments exclaiming that Lyra as among the best. I had to wait 6 months to get it. But the improvement over my excellent $3K Mayijima Shilabi was spectacular-putting it mildly.

I recently heard a demo of much more pricy system using a $25K cartridge. Seemed to be the most expensive cartridge made. Don’t recall the name.

For sure, the amount of detail was something I never heard. To hear a timpani sound like the real thing was incredible. And so much more! 
This got me thinking of what could be possible with a different kind of cartridge than a moving coil. That is, a moving iron.

I have heard so much about the late Decca London Reference. A MI and a very different take from a MC. Could it be better? The World’s Best? No longer made.

However Grado has been making MI cartridges for decades. Even though they hold the patent for the MC. Recently, Grado came out with their assault on “The World’s Best”. At least their best effort. At $12K the Epoch 3. I bought one and have been using it now for about two weeks replacing my Lyra. There is no question that the Atlas SL is a fabulous cartridge. But the Epoch is even better. Overall, it’s SQ is the closest to real I have heard. To begin, putting the stylus down on the run in grove there is dead silence. As well as the groves between cuts. This silence is indicative of the purity of the music content. Everything I have read about it is true. IME, the comment of one reviewer, “The World’s Best”, may be true.
 

 

mglik
dover
2,177 posts
 

re Soundsmith cartridges

Same stylus, same cantilever, same suspension and chassis. The ONLY difference is larger coils. 

This is not correct.

The more expensive low output SS cartridges ( Paua, Sussuro, Hyperion ) have much better channel separation - 5db improvement - and channel matching is much better - 0.5db vs 1.0db

Of course each model also has a different cantilever material - aluminium, ruby, cactus.

It would be interesting to know whether the lower channel separation in the high output versions is direct related to the larger coils.

 

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,167 posts
 

@lewm ​​@dover , Al I can tell you was that this was confirmed by Peter. We spent 2 hours together listening to the Strain Gauge and Hyperion at his listening room talking mostly about COVID. At the time I was already using The Voice.  I do not know if they spend more time fine tuning the Sussurro. I did not ask that question. As dover suggests the variation in channel matching could well be a function of the larger coils but I do not know that for sure. The low output version of the Voice is the Sussurro except I think the Sussurro came first. 

sksos
154 posts
 

Over the last few years I've been using a Kuzzma CAR-50 then the Sussuro MKII and most recently a MSL Gold Sig. All have sounded wonderful BUT the MSL (after a minimum of 25 hrs) is just in another world "in my system."  The system hasn't changed, using a Kuzma 4Point on either a Kuzma XL or Stabi R table into a NVO all tubed phono stage. The MSL has more extension at both ends of the spectrum a more solid bass, more transparency and just sounds more like real instrumnets, it just sings and lets me forget about the gear and enjoy the music. 

lewm
12,454 posts
 

To the best of my recollection, The Voice was SS’s first cartridge after they had already marketed the SMMC line , which are basically copies of B&O cartridges. But you may be correct that Sussuro came very soon after Voice.

dogberry
549 posts
 

@lewm I owe you thanks. I tried the same process with the Grado Statement 3 and it has transformed the cartridge from being a boring but honest into a spirited creature that just about beats out the Sussurro. It likes 100Ω best of all. I put the gory details in the 'Moving Iron Adventures' thread.

 

 

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