How Cartridges Fall Out Of Favor Over Time

Those should still be fine cartridges today. I still particularly like the Benz Glider and Wood models (M and L output levels). This hobby & industry is very much driven by a "flavor of the month" and "what’s new" mentality. Small cartridge makers led by ageing artisans seemingly don’t have the time, patience and energy to keep up anymore. For example, Benz and Shelter appear to be winding down, if not already done. Koetsu was finished and is now "back", but how much continuity is there with old Koetsu?

Anyways, "new tech" application to cartridges is sparse. Today we see largely the same old enumerations of materials & designs in endless re-combinations. Hats off to Ortofon, which seem to (still) be actively pushing the tech forward in bodies, dampers, armature alloys, etc. Does all the tech lead to better sound? That varies wildly from person to person (much like the digital vs vinyl debate). Most other companies are akin to garage engineers, where they pick a "gimmick" and then craft their design approach around optimizing that one special thing (e.g. low coil impedance for MSL). The "new" Orgura diamond cantilevers are really nice, but some older carts had diamond too (if not as neatly grown), and it’s hard to say it’s a true leap forward versus a different flavor of sound. The more pedestrian boron rod is still very, very good. 

Interesting thought neon.  I have a collection of cartridges I never auditioned which I'm beginning to evaluate.  First up was a Grado 8MX which proved to have wonderful sonics.  Next will be XTZ, then others, more highly acclaimed, including several MCs.  So I'm holding real expectations.

Cartridge de jour… get a headshell arm and join in the fun..

I do think the notion of a grail cartridge one cartridge to rule them all is silly…  I’ve got a mix of out of production and current MC and love mucking about with them…

So, the idea of having two turntables with two/three tonearms each is in fact an excellent one. I am not a cartridge man, and that arrangement is way beyond my financial reach if done right, but I fully support it. Add couple of different phono stages too, both tube, please.

Very interesting observation. I have owned very few cartridges... driven by large amounts of research and then just used them for a decade or more. So, I posed the question to ChatGPT. I will not reproduce it all. But here is one paragraph that I think is important. It acknowledges the change of favor.

This shift does not imply that these cartridges became worse. Rather, it reflects how the culture of vinyl playback evolves. Cartridge reputation is inseparable from the systems and listening priorities of its time. In the late analog revival, systems tended to favor warmth, forgiveness, and musical flow; many of these cartridges excelled precisely because they complemented those priorities. As phono stages became quieter and more adjustable, tonearms more rigid, and listeners more focused on resolution and micro-detail, the traits once celebrated—density, richness, and ease—were sometimes reinterpreted as coloration or lack of refinement.