Highest detail cartridges

@bimasta

"Is "closer to the music" a more accurate reproduction of what is in the groove or a "romantic" rewrite?"

It is more involving reproduction of music on vinyl media. May be caused by synergy of the arm + cartridge and all components. The moment when you’re there with a smile on your face, when everything is damn good.

Victor Direct Couple MC-1 is very dynamic cartridge in my system.
I was aware of the sweetness of Shibata profile on Beryllium cantilever, becuase i have tried many Victor MM cartridges before. But i think Direct Couple principle is something special in this MC design. Never tried Decca or Ikeda cantilever-less models.

Mr. Poletti, thank you I appreciate your answer. However I was not asking if you could detect minute differences in the sound of components. In my experience that is the easiest part.

What I was asking is, once you hear a difference in two components, apart from gross colorations, how can you determine which is more accurate?

I think that you referenced instrumental timbre and that it exposes the accuracy of the recording. But it can only do that as seen through the distortion spectra of the reproduction system. You can’t listen to the timbre of a recording without playing it on a stereo. The distortions in the recording chain, and those in the reproduction chain then being additive.

How can you seperate the two, and even if you could, how could you be sure that the reproduction chain was not simply adding complimentary colorations to the recording chain making it sound more “accurate” and lower in distortion?

As an example after running the mike feed though a solid state mixing board even order harmonics may be cancelled and a reproduction chain rich in second harmonic distortion may yield a waveform that is closer to the original mike feed. Or a more complete representation of the original spectra of the mike feed might be a better way of putting it.

To say that you want the lowest distortion is laudable, but is this determined by listening? If so, complimentary distortions may skew the results. Or is it determined by measurement, and if so, which distortion measurements and how do we know that we are measuring the right things? My apologies in advance for asking so many questions, I’m just interested in how each of us comes to the conclusions that we do.

@viridian   No apologize necessary.  My opinion....

I am, unfortunately, very sensitive to timbre particularly in cellos, double reeds and violins.  Yes, there are variations in some equipment used to record the instruments, but in my opinion less so than in cartridges and arms. 

In my system, cartridge anomalies, arm resonances, tube warmth, and similar often appear in my system as "bloom" at various frequencies that distorts instrumental timbre.  Some listeners like that distortion and call it "musical" or other descriptions that are used to rationalize distortion.

Thank you very much. That seems like a great answer. I appreciate it. Best wishes for finding a cartridge that is consonant with your listening preferences.

If price is no problem the new Topwing Blue Dragon is the king of detail
only $12500 for next to the best and $16500 for the Red Sparrow
here is a review:
https://www.monoandstereo.com/2018/04/top-wing-seiryu-blue-dragon-cartridge.html
Dr Vinyl will install cartridge anywhere in lower 48 states for the retail price
http://drvinyl.net/drv_news/