Raul,
Most of your cartridges are very old, up to 30 yrs old, and you cannot possibly know whether the cartridges compliance and stylus tip are within the original specifications. The compliance could be lower, due to gummed up suspension, or higher, due to deteriorated rubber. Therefore, with all due respect, your test results are irrelevant and cannot be used to provide conclusive evidence of a particular cartridges tracking ability.
Fwiw, I have just played the 1812, Antal Dorati, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 1958 on Mercury SR90054 - original pressing.
With Final Audio Parthenon, VM7 4.5kg Copper Mat, VDS17 1.8kg Stabiliser ( with washer under the record ), Fidelity Research FR64S with 230g counterweight, Koetsu Black Goldline ( 2 yrs old, played sparingly ), all the drums play with no mistracking. The bells are clean and despite the surface noise cymbals and their decay are as clean as a whistle. The cartridge is tracking at 1.93g with static balancing employed, no spring.
The best tracking LOMC I own is the Dynavector Nova 13D, 2nd rebuild less than 2 years ago, by Dynavector, which when mounted my Naim Aro will track Chris Rea "On the Beach" cleanly despite a severe warp which is about 1/4" high on a small section of the record. The stylus does not leave the groove.
For VTA/SRA and antiskate settings one of the records I use is
Venezianische Konzerte, Harmonia Mundi 1C 065-99 614, where you can clearly hear the sound reverberating off the back walls of the recording venue when everything is correct.
Others are Emma Kirkby recordings, excellent for pinpointing anti skate to get a clean rendition of voice in the upper registers without mistracking.
Elizabeth Maconchy on Lyrita, original pressing, you can hear the conductor breathing in through his nose ( must have been blocked ) and the gap between the rostrum and the orchestra is clearly defined.
Walter Leigh, Trevor Pinnock, Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings, Lyrita SRCS 126. On this record the sound changes dramatically between 1st and 2nd movement. In the 1st movement the recording venue sounds congested & humid, in the 2nd movement the humidity disappears and the space around everything opens up. When the VTA/SRA/antiskate are correct you will hear clearly the location in space of the harpsichord and the gap between it and the orchestra.
Ragtime Razzmatazz on Wilson Audio, is worth seeking out. There are liner notes on the microphone placement and what to listen for when setting VTA/SRA. Dave Wilson explains clearly what happens when the SRA is too high or too low. When it is correct you "see" the keyboard and each note up and down the scale is equidistant - the mikes are up close behind the pianist and the upright piano.
For devotees of linear tracking arms :
Sota Vacuum/ET2/Madrigal Carnegie Model One/Counterpoint SA5.1/Quicksilver 8417/Martin Logan CLS : try William Jackson: The Wellpark Suite (Mill Records MR001, 1986). On Track 6 you can clearly see the walls of the recording studio as they are defined by the reverberation of some "woodblocks" in a percussion piece. The reverberation runs along the back of the recording studio room to the top left corner and then proceeds to come toward the front up the left hand wall.
The same mistake I continually see in audio is enthusiasts using VTA/SRA to adjust the spectral balance of their system, compensating for aberrations elsewhere in their system. I look for natural sound, least compression, harmonic completeness and accurate timing (harmonics and decay of notes) when setting VTA/SRA. Tracking tends to move naturally to an optimum when you look for these attributes in reproduction in a decent system.
JCarr - have you tried a FR64S on your Final Audio TT ? I do not get any upper midrange coloration in my system. I use static balance only with this arm which opened the soundstage and improved resolution considerably compared with the use of dynamic balance when using a LOMC.
