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.
Your Atlas *if* dialed in right is a pretty special cart. Yet for some people the worlds best might be an original white bakelite Neumann DST from 60 years ago. For another whatever Audio Exotics has at the top of the price list :) Certainly carts with high quality gold or platinum windings might be interesting. I picked Aidas and Tedeska to sell in my portfolio because, while not inexpensive, I felt the value is high.
Enjoy |
OP,
The Grado Epoch 3 is a really beautiful cartridge. I look forward to hearing it some day.
My daily music time is 4 - 6 PM… and with it being summer.. the heat pump is typically on, not a huge noise but enough to mask the detail of my analog end… so for now I stream all the time. I am looking forward to the Fall when analog will again be a great choice. |
it's an un-knowable thing. there is no 'absolute' way to single out a best cartridge. i can say in my personal experience so far, i've not heard another cartridge do what my 'special version' of the Etsuro Gold MC does in my system. it's very expensive, and rare. few have heard it. it has a magical believability along with tone and life. i've had more than a few high level cartridges in my system, but not everything. and there are arm and phono stage variables. |
I would dispute this assumption. In my view the TT trumps all. I'd rather have a the best TT I can buy with a $500 cartridge than a top cartridge with less than optimum TT. In your case a tonearm upgrade would arguably unleash more performance than changing cartridges. I currently have a Garrard 301 with FR64S in my B system and have set up many arms on Garrard's including Moerch, Helius, Kuzma to name a few. Each of these arms offers a different perspective on any given cartridge. I have owned or set up most of the cartridges you mention - Personally I prefer the top Soundsmith MI's to their strain gauge. The Decca MI's are superb, but can mistrack unless perfectly set up in an appropriate tonearm due to the lack of suspension. They are now out of production. I also have owned a few of the cantileverless MC Ikedas from the 80's - they are the MC equivalent of the Decca. Current favourite of current production cartridges would be Van den Hul Grand Cru which I have recently set up on a Kuzma 4Point11. The reality though is that cartridges are so dependent on TT, tonearm and phono stage interface that they can only really be judged in the context of the supporting components, and the best cartridge is the one that works best with your particular arm and phono stage.
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+1, @mikelavigne I am hoping to end up with Etsuro Gold MC in very near future, once I am done putting together all the pieces of my new analog rig. |
