HP once said in one of his cartridge surveys, and I paraphrase since that issue is somewhere in storage, "if these cartridges are supposed to represent the sound of real music, how come they sound so different?" I always thought that showed some great insight.
So what goes? Are today's cartridges any better in this regard? Or is this just a continuing trend of all the other gear in our systems?
Myles-I think most reasonable people would agree that the most colored devices in our reproduction chain are the transducers. In our case, that would be the speakers and the phono cartridge. Want to change the sound of your system in a big way? Change the speakers and you will change the entire sound of your system. Changing your cartridge will also have a big impact, but not as big as changing your biggest transducer. Speakers don't sound alike, cartridges don't sound alike, and neither do microphones. They all have the same goal, but they all tell a different version of the truth. One could argue if anything has really gotten better in audio in the last 50 years. We are seeing a return to 50+ year old turntables now. Vacuum tube circuits haven't really changed much in over 50 years regardless of manufactuer hype-they are all pretty much variations on a theme. Passive parts have gotten better so we are told while others would even debate that point. Even if phono cartridges have gotten better, there hasn't been a convergence of how they sound from one brand to another and probably there never will be.
Mark
Dear Mep: ++++++ " One could argue if anything has really gotten better in audio in the last 50 years. " +++++ Agree.
Everyone has his own opinion about. IMHO analog audio areas like: tonearms, TT and phono cartridges almost has no significant advance. Where I think we have serious advances are in : loudspeakers, cables, room treatment, SS electronics, passive parts and audiophile audio knowledge. Even reviewers goes not up but IMHO down.