Are expensive carts worth it?

[ianlenco]

Interesting discussion which highlights what is wrong with vinyl replay these days. I don't think anybody would put a high quality cartridge in a cheap tonearm on a cheap turntable. My setup has been stable for a while consisting of a Zyx R50 Bloom on a Jelco 12" arm sat on a replinthed JVC QL-7. Sounds great to me but most of my friends can't believe why anyone would spend over £1500 just to spin the record, never mind the rest of the gear needed to make music. In today's world mine is a pretty cheap set up compared to what you could spend and to be honest I think the cost of a decent vinyl setup has got very, very silly. I've had Lyras, Ortofont Kontrapukt B and other decent cartridges in the past and enjoyed them all but the thought of shelling out £1000+ for a tiny bit of engineering makes me shudder, not because I couldn't scrape together the money but because it represents such poor value for money.
I also enjoy my digital source - a mac mini with SSD running Audivarna - cheap as chips in comparison and a few hundred to replace/improve upon if required. I love playing records but really wonder if it has a future for me..........

[struth]

inclined to agree, but if folk want to..... happy now with my mm's tbh. not perfect but sounds pretty good.

[Bigman80]

Ouch - Nooooo, you don't want to do that, Oli!!

Lol, a little humour in the post. Glad you picked up on it Jerry, I thought it was lost

[Bigman80]

to counter the topic,what about the denon 103 and variants?
ive had more listening pleasure with the SA model than with any other cartridge i have owned.
it doesn't extract every last detail from the groove,but its set up is a doddle and being conical it doesn't need a week of sra adjustment either.

id love to hear a really high end cartridge though just to way up what im missing.

I'm hoping to get the Ortofon Vienna at the Bakeoff. Ortofon Class it in their "Elite" range along with the "A95" and "Anna" carts.

Whether we can do it justice in the hall on the day remains to be seen.

[jandl100]

to counter the topic,what about the denon 103 and variants?
ive had more listening pleasure with the SA model than with any other cartridge i have owned.
it doesn't extract every last detail from the groove,but its set up is a doddle and being conical it doesn't need a week of sra adjustment either.

id love to hear a really high end cartridge though just to way up what im missing.

I agree with the sentiment here.
The 2 most enjoyable carts I owned were both towards the lower end of the price window.
Denon 103 rebodied and a Dynavector 10x5.
The sheer fun factor beat the extra accuracy from more expensive carts, including Dyna 17d3.

[Audio Al]

My opinion would be yes they are worth the extra money
From my experience the further up the price range I have ventured the more refined the sound has become , Less coloured and more clinical , I have only ventred as far as a Shelter 5000 MC cart / ZYX R100 Yatra

I prefer the MC range as aposed to the MM's

[Dickchy]

I’m following this thread with interest as I have been wondering precisely the same. I use a Goldring Eroica LX which I think is a great cartridge for the money. However, I keep wondering how much more detail I would get by spending more.
I have no idea which brand I should be looking at or how much I should be spending but I like the Eroica’s boogie factor, to get technical😉
Deck is an LP12 with Ekos SE arm.
It is difficult for me to get to bake offs as I am not in mainland UK.
Any ideas for a turbo-charged Eroica welcome!
I listen mainly to classic rock.

Richard

[Bigman80]

I’m following this thread with interest as I have been wondering precisely the same. I use a Goldring Eroica LX which I think is a great cartridge for the money. However, I keep wondering how much more detail I would get by spending more.
I have no idea which brand I should be looking at or how much I should be spending but I like the Eroica’s boogie factor, to get technical
Deck is an LP12 with Ekos SE arm.
It is difficult for me to get to bake offs as I am not in mainland UK.
Any ideas for a turbo-charged Eroica welcome!
I listen mainly to classic rock.

Richard

Boogie factor is difficult to define, are we talking dynamics and excitement or .........

If it's dynamics and excitement, I heard a Lyra Clavis recently which really surprised me. It had a great sense of life and pace whilst retaining a great deal of transparency. I was very impressed.

Alternatively, the AT ART7 has dynamics to spare but has a slightly warmer tone than the Lyra Clavis. Nothing wrong with that at all, just not sure which one would suit.

Goldring had the stupid idea of pricing a genuine MC cartridge so low that people think it's a budget cart. It's far from it. I had one and preferred it to the AT33PTGII in most ways.

[walpurgis]

Goldring had the stupid idea of pricing a genuine MC cartridge so low that people think it's a budget cart. It's far from it. I had one and preferred it to the AT33PTGII in most ways.

You hit the nail on the head there Oliver. The Eroica LX offers an amazing sound for the price.

I also had an Ortofon MC25FL which I was using at the same time, which had the edge on the Eroica, but not by much and of course, if the Ortofon was still made, you'd be paying around a grand for it now.

As Richard says, the Eroica LX really 'boogies'!!

The ZYX R50 Bloom outperforms both in my opinion, but all three are great MC's.

The thing is, so many people get the front end wrong. You simply cannot get proper enjoyment of a nice MC unless the head-amp or SUT are suitably good and the phono stage needs to be equally decent.

[Bigman80]

You hit the nail on the head there Oliver. The Eroica LX offers an amazing sound for the price.

I also had an Ortofon MC25FL which I was using at the same time, which had the edge on the Eroica, but not by much and of course, if the Ortofon was still made, you'd be paying around a grand for it now.

As Richard says, the Eroica LX really 'boogies'!!

The ZYX R50 Bloom outperforms both in my opinion, but all three are great MC's.

The thing is, so many people get the front end wrong. You simply cannot get proper enjoyment of a nice MC unless the head-amp or SUT are suitably good and the phono stage needs to be equally decent.

Thanks Geoff, whilst I agree that there is a step up in some areas when the ZYX R50 was installed, there were areas that it wasn't. A rosy midrange and less detailed approach from ZYX didn't warm my heart and the ZYX R100 got the same treatment when the Lyra Clavis came on the scene. Now, I admit that this will depend largely on ones taste, but to mine, neither ZYX did transparency. Both did boogie. I refer to the ZYX as party cartridges. Great for everyone to dance to, not for those looking for detail and transparency.

The Goldring is a good mix of both but ultimately falls at refinement and resolution. Not in any great way but it's bettered by a fair bit when you move into Kontrapunkt, Clavis, Delos territory. For the money though, it's an absolute steal for someone looking for a well priced MC Cartridge. Used prices are favourable too.