Dear friends,
I think that people who seriously cares about musical reproduction at home, has to have as their main priority to extract the signal from the LP with the utmost accuracy possible. In other words, the main priority should be the phono cartridge, with the arm and turntable as secondary priorities, which of course must also be taken into account. This is easy to understand if we consider that phono cartridges, as well as speakers, are transducers whose function is to convert the audio signal from one type of energy (mechanical) to another type (electrical) and viceversa. This is the most difficult and important task to be done.
With this in mind, the cartridge should be selected first, regarding important parameters such as: The basic principle of operation (MM or MC); the type of internal magnet (smarium-cobalt, neodymium, rare earths, alnico, etc.); the type of stylus, material and design of the cantilever; suspension, cartridge body, and several minor factors. All the former will determine how accurate will be the "translation" performed by the cartridge itself when reading the LP information. Obviously the cartridge will operate into a given "environment", consisting of the arm and the turntable, and this environment must be optimized as far as possible to facilitate the cartridge's job. However, as I said before, this environment should not be the goal in itself, but only a mean to the main purpose. If the job is done correctly, the result will be a good synergy between all three elements, leading to an natural and musical reproduction.
Continuing with this reasoning, the second priority would be to choose an arm that makes the best match with the cartridge. Any deviation from the optimal matching will mean a degradation in the sound to be reproduced. The third priority then must be the turntable, which is the "environment" into which these couple will dance.
If the turntable was the first step, this would put us into an extremely limited condition, as there is no perfect universal turntable as yet. Let us suppose that we begin our setup by choosing a turntable designed by the suspension principle, this feature alone would not allow us to use a heavy tonearm, if this turntable was a Linn (for instance) it would be unable to use as SME V, because as we all know there is no synergy between them. On the other hand, if the turntable had an acrilic/wood plate, there are in fact cartridge/tonearm combos that sound better in this type of plates. On the contrary if the plate was metallic, then the combo to be used would be different, and this would prevent us to freely choose the cartridge/tonearm. If the turntable uses a metallic armboard, then the chosen combo will have to be different from that with acrilic armboard. This means that nobody would be able to openly choose the cartridge and arm they wish, as the turntable itself would define the rest of the components, which will again put us into a less than ideal situation.
Lets us now suppose that we begin our setup in the order Cartridge-Tonearm-Turntable. We would begin by choosing the cartridge that we know will get the optimal quality in LP musical reproduction. Up to this point we shouldn't care about the turntable that will be chosen. Then we would choose the tonearm that best complements the cartridge, still disregarding the turntable. Once cartridge/tonearm duo is defined, then and only then we are in position to choose the turntable that helps us to preserve the signal quality of the transducer and tonearm.
The tonearm and turntable are really a "necessary evil", because without them the transducer is unable to operate. However, it's important to remember that it is the transducer itself who has the main responsibility in LP reproduction, and the final result will depend firstly in this transducer quality, and secondly in the quality and matching of its partners. The combinations described by some of you, like using a cheap cartridge/tonearm with a good turntable, versus an expensive cartridge/tonearm used with a poor turntable, do not prove that the turntable must be the main priority. They only shows us that our analog systems must be carefully balanced in order not no suffer the consequences, as you perfectly discovered ("The
Shelter just showed us the flaws of the inadequate turntable and arm"). Furthermore, a serious music lover would never say something as "What I can't hear won't disappoint me" as somebody expressed (!). This way of thinking goes directly against the principles of high-fidelity reproduction, and virtually any system to be found would satisfy this absurd criteria.
The issue is not about who's right. The important thing is to try to minimize mistakes when building our analog playback systems, that apart from getting us far from the optimal, they cost us a lot of money. In my experience, this goal is unambiguosly achieved if one follows the time-proven formula cartridge/tonearm/turntable.
When enough experience and knowledge are not available, is easy to make mistakes. I will give an example: Somebody in this forum began by purchasing a turntable with acrilic/wood armboard, and then he bought the cartridge and tonearm. Later he changed the tonearm, without noticing that the new arm works better with a metallic armboard (a facility his turntable does not have). Unfortunately, he also chose a non-optimal tonearm. Although the criteria exerted to choose this tonearm was the ability to change the VTA in real time, the fact remains that changing the VTA also demands re-calibrating the rest of the arm set-up parameters (azimuth, overhang and vertical tracking force). The only tonearm capable of this feat is manufactured by SpJ, whose design incorporates 4 precision micrometers to do this marvel (!). The final result of this criteria was a wrong tonearm, mounted in the wrong turntable, and combined with the wrong cartridge and a even poorer phono stage.
We have to learn from our own mistakes, as well as succesful stories from the rest of us. Any person commited to music and analog musical reproduction should remember that the tonearm and the turntable can't make any improvement in the signal generated by the transducer (the phono cartridge). If we make the right decisions when choosing a good match for the tonearm and turntable, the result will be an optimal signal quality showing a minimal amount of degrading. This is the quest of all us who care about music.
There is no doubt about it. Mr. Hirsch was right: The transducer is the main election. (BTW, he was also right about the speakers subject)
Regards and always enjoy the music,
Raul
