Highest detail cartridges

@lewm  My Moving Iron reference cartridge (Joseph Grado Signature XTZ) can't beat the AT-ML180 OCC or Grace LEVEL II LC-OFC with BR/MR stylus.

Technics 205c mk4 is an excellent cartridge (never tried 100c mk4, but owned 100c mk3), in terms of detail retrival those cartridges are oustanding! Why? I just tried to add some facts such as extremely wide and flat frequency response and the lowest moving mass.

At the same time the Technics cartridges are the most problematic because of the weak damper. 

"Highest detail cartridges" are not necessary the most musical or the most involving cartridges. ZYX Airy III or ZYX Premium 4D SB are great in detail retrival, but not the most involving carts (but surely very expensive). 

Moving Magnet cartridges from my list are highly competitive with any MC cartridges i have owned, but the cost of those vintage MM is 3-5 time lower than MC equivalents. I would recomment you to try any of them, especially the AT-ML180 OCC. 

At the same time i like my Fidelity-Research FR-7 series (f and fz), this is very musical cartridge with body and soul.  

 



  

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

If the romance of the original performance is conveyed in the recording, accurate reproduction of the groove is more than sufficient.

If it isn’t, I have no issue with restoring it, if I can.

An ART-9 just came up for sale on Audio Asylum Trader. No knowledge of the seller, not an endorsement, etc., etc.

@bimasta - How can you tell?  Maybe it is just a mediocre performance.  I prefer accuracy over distortion.

How do you determine accuracy? Were you there when the recordings were being made, or is “accuracy” a subjective assessment?

I think this a more than fair question as, in the last 50 years, I have been able to determine gross colorations, but past that, I really don’t know what criteria would qualify a piece of gear as being “accurate”.

Ill go a little further. For the sake of illustration, two amps measure the same, except one has .2% more 7th harmonic distortion and the other has 1% more 2nd harmonic distortion. Objectively, the later amp has an order greater distortion and is the less accurate. However we also know from the work of Hiraga, et al, that higher, odd order, distortion is much more jarring to the ear. The higher quantity of distortion in the second amp will be more consonant with the fabric of the music and thus more accurate. This is also why small amounts of IM distortion are subjectively worse than harmonic distortion, as IM is not correlated with the musical signal, whereas harmonic distortion is.