What VERY expensive MC cartridges have you owned, and are they worth it?

Thanks for the additional information, as it does explain what you experienced.

In my instance the retipped cartridge had a cantilever and diamond installed that was extremely close in material and diamond type. The assembly was from Namiki, while I believe Koetsu uses Ogura. However, from a practical stand point I could not hear a difference between the stock and the retipped one.

Now in your case you installed a different material cantilever. I imagine Soundsmith did not have their boron option available at the time. But a ruby cantilever is going to have different mass, different stiffness, and different resonance points than the boron one that the cartridge was originally designed and tuned for. Of course it is going to sound different, there is no way it cannot.

Now if you chose to send it to a different retipper who had access to a boron cantilever with a line contact stylus of some version, I believe you would have gotten a much closer match. You could have used Expert Stylus, Vandenhul, or Audio Dynamics. All have the proper cantilever materials, but are less convenient and more expensive than Soundsmith.

I don't know where Soundsmith gets their boron cantilever and diamond assembly. However i did have an Audiotechnica 50ANV done by them, and to be honest I found the boron rod and diamond to be larger than what the stock AT one was. I would not send my Ortofon or ZYX to them for that package. However, their gemstone cantilevers are quite nice, and the new sapphire one looks to be quite nice for the price. However, I still would not replace a boron cantilever with it.

Cheers
Mister Pig

 

Have a Kiseki Purple Heart NS n a Benz LP. Somehow I like the Benz more. If I would compare them to a painting the Benz LP is a Rembrandt and the Kiseki is a Van Gogh. Have to tell u am just running in the Kiseki, but the first impression of mine was this.

 

Since I last posted to this thread, over a year ago, I've had a variety of cartridges to play with, some cheap, some not so cheap:

• a rebuilt Monster Alpha Genesis 1000-- unbelievable tracker, but too lean for my taste- it sounded better on a pivoted arm than on my linear tracker; I'm told that the 2000 model has better midrange and that is something I'd be willing to try- they aren't expensive if you can find one and have it rebuilt;
• a Koetsu Jade- sublime- seemed to need very little 'break-in' time- out of the box it not only had great midrange, but rich, dimensional bass. This is a fairly expensive cartridge, but not the top of the Koetsu heap;
• a Denon 103, potted in a wooden body with a microridge stylus- has the tonality characteristic of the Koetsu, lacks the nuance, but at a tiny fraction of the price; currently running it in a Kuzma 4 Point 9" arm, which is wonderful once set up properly (I forgot how much there was to setting up a pivoted arm after years of using a linear tracker but with some work, it is now zoned in);
• a Koetsu Tiger Eye-- this cartridge has even more to offer than the Jade, but out of the box was harsh and strident on some high frequency passages; with some hours on it, some adjustments to VTA and fiddling with loading and gain, the negatives seem to have gone. The two things I do not like about Koetsu is their stylus guard and the fact that the cantilever is almost hidden under the body, making cueing something I'm especially careful about.

I don't think you can discount the role the tone arm plays in all of this. Without getting into the weeds on resonance and mass, the Koetsu seems to really like my linear tracker and gives the system a gravitas that it lacked with the Airtights. At some point, i'll reinstall one of the Airtights, possibly on the Kuzma 4 Point, which might enable it to deliver more bass (the linear trackers tend to be bass shy in my experience). More as it happens. I'll post some pictures when I get time.

 

Linn Troika.
Yes, it was worth it.
Still get flashbacks.

 

If you are talking the difference between £500-£1K and £2k and above the changes are fairly subtle. I don't think I would go above £800 - £1K due to replacement cost. A £500 cartridge may be prefered to something costing a lot more. Below this price you do get a significant drop in SQ with MCs. Of course £500 is expensive to most people.

 

I get it that a business must be healthy to survive. But, if a small manufacturer would sell lesser quality products (compared with retail price) how long would he survive?
I am sure that his overpricing would be exposed quickly, e.g in forums like this one )! I guess he/she is better off to establish a name first by selling highest quality for a reasonable price. This could be vehicle needed to introduce more products.

Anyway my most expensive cart so far is the Ortofon Cadenza Blue, (I guess I took it safe and stayed with a big, established producer). I did invest in an SME IV arm earlier and that turned out to be the best investment so far. My AT OC9mkIII at the time sounded so much more controlled and exciting with SME arm. The Ortofon Cadenza took it up another level.
So, having experienced these step-up’s I wonder what “very expensive” cartridges would do? To be continued.....

 

I guess the Netherlands is big enough that not everything is right around the corner, but you are in the land of A.J. Van den Hul. I'll bet you if you speak the native language and ask nicely, they might have some cartridge there that they've rebuilt that you could get for a reasonable price. It might be worth talking to them. They are very good cartridges.

 

Here are a couple photos of what is currently running:

A Tiger Eye, mounted on a Kuzma Airline:

IMG_0547 by William Hart, on Flickr
And a Franken-Denon 103, built by Steve Leung, mounted to a Kuzma 4Pt. 9:

IMG_1001 by William Hart, on Flickr

 

I have nothing fancy, just a low end SPU.
What your get when you step up in price is imho a more even handed sound.

 

Thanks for tip! I will call them when I am ready to look for a new cart. They also offer a general re-tipping service with the VdH naked line diamond on a boron cantilever for your “old” cartridge for 450 €.
The VdH frog cart (2600€) and the optical DS audio carts were already on my long term wish list. BTW, I am surprised that no one has mentioned yet any of the DS audio carts. Very interesting concept and they seem to get extremely high ratings in reviews.

 

I’ve owned Benz , Ruby, Linn Troika, two Dynavector XV 1s’s and a Koetsu Rosewood Signature. All have different sounds but I enjoyed them all and believe they were worth the price.