The Palladian-A step beyond

I am sitting back basking in the sound of my Palladian, aligned to UNI-DIN, which gives me an unprecedented amount of information for my senses to process. The additional information is in so many regards: ambience, all parts of the frequency spectrum, changes in voice pressure etc. And this, coupled with excellent macro and micro dynamics, and a balanced frequency response, all add to make my listening experience the more believable and enjoyable.

Somehow it managed to do all of this regardless of the debates that are raging around its design fundamentals and alignment and the personal dislikes of some for its designer. To give full scientific context to my listening experience, I should note that my personal cantilever (not to be confused with the Palladian's cantilever) started off highly flexible (and therefore I would think reasonably damped?). However, with heightened enjoyment (listening that is) its tensile characteristics firmed considerably. I would presume that it therefore became less damped? At all times it remained hollow throughout.

Riddle me this. Approach A is superior as per the laws of physics to Approach B. However, regardless of which approach is used, it will have to interact with other areas. Also, the quality of the execution of the approach will also determine the result. So even if I know that Approach A is scientifically superior, it does not mean that a componet following A will sonically outperform one following B. I therefore use my ultimate approach, my EARS to determine the final result for me. If you have the opportunity to hear a Palladian, I would suggest that you do. It is an excellent cartridge.

I now have the courage to write this having purchased and applied copious quantities of LOTFR (Lord Of The Flies Repellent).

All the best!
And "enjoy the music" even if you do not listen to my type of music on my type of equipment! I think this is meant to be a hobby.

Maybe because I have to be concerned with exact calculations and minutiae of other kinds in my work life, I tend to be lazy about facing exactitude in my hobbies.  Seems to me that no matter what anyone can do, no matter how great a genius or how creative or innovative, it is only possible to achieve tangency to the groove wall of an LP at two points on the playing surface, given a conventional pivoted tonearm that is mounted such that the stylus tip overhangs the spindle and employs a headshell with offset angle.  Optimal mounting geometry would seek to place those two null points such that tracking angle error up to and after each of the two null points is minimal.  From what I can gather, Lofgren and Baerwald published the best solutions to this problem, and maybe now Dietrich has done even better, but I have to wonder how large a difference alignment alone could possibly make in the listening experience, when we are comparing solutions that are very close to each other.  I am dubious, and I do own and use a UNItractor.

If the AS cartridge sounds wonderful, it is probably because it is a very good cartridge, maybe a great one, but I doubt its excellence has much to do with alignment per se.

Now as to the discussion of cantilever movement.  It's interesting to me that MC cartridges, which are generally low in compliance, lose again. Add this to the other drawbacks: (1) The moving mass of an MC is not as low as that of an MI cartridge. (2) The low signal voltage necessitates one of a few tricks to add gain, any of which inevitably also add distortion of one kind or another.  Why do they dominate the high end?
They do have the undeniable virtue of costing more.

A pensive post Lewm..🤔
And one which I think the 'High-End Cabal' (which includes reviewers) would like dismissed 🙈
I have just today, conducted a mini-shoot-out between the Sony XL-55, Sony XL-88 (both renowned LOMCs from the Golden Age of analogue-70s-80s) and one of my favourite MM cartridges (also from the same age)..the Victor Z1 fitted with the SAS stylus.
In two words.....no contest 😎
The Victor has all the immediacy and involvement of 'live' music combined with the delicacy, depth, spatial imagery and speed that are commonly used to describe LOMCs....
Yet I have perhaps a dozen other vintage MMs which are virtually as good as the Z1/SAS and each one can be had for a maximum price of $400...😝
The real question is.....how does the Victor compare to the Palladian....❓👀

For me, it may be no coincidence that the MC cartridges I like most have tended to be those with high-ish compliance, compared to their brethren.