Is Cartridge the Most Important thing?

audiohifi

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I have a small doubt which I want to get clarified here.

Keep hearing about the expensive Shure & Nagaoka Cartridges that my fellow colleagues use in not so expensive Turntable that they have.I want to know is the Cartridge the most important thing in an Turntable setup? Are we going to get similar output from a say Denon TT priced around 15,000/- vis a vis a Raga TT priced around 60,000/- using the same Shure / Nagaoka cartridge? Yes/No can someone explain please.
 
If you have an extremely cheap tt, you will face issues with feedback, rumble, speed instability, igd etc. Once these are sorted out, then it's mostly the cartridge. If you're looking at buying a new TT, below a $200 price point, the TT makes the most difference, and above it, it's the cart
 
I guess you mean sound quality when you say output. Dont know about denon turntable but two main functions of the deck (if we leave out tonearm+cartridge) the rumble noise and speed stability.one can clearly hear the difference. Having said that mid priced (Dont know if there are any) well made turntable is a good compromise. If possible try to touch the plinth when turntable is running if you can feel the vibrations it is not good.(You can even use stethoscope) For speed stability you can hear some piano playing records to see pitch variations. Indian classical music where the singer does 'aalap' is also good to test. Broadly speaking.
Regards.
 
I have a small doubt which I want to get clarified here.

Keep hearing about the expensive Shure & Nagaoka Cartridges that my fellow colleagues use in not so expensive Turntable that they have.I want to know is the Cartridge the most important thing in an Turntable setup? Are we going to get similar output from a say Denon TT priced around 15,000/- vis a vis a Raga TT priced around 60,000/- using the same Shure / Nagaoka cartridge? Yes/No can someone explain please.

TT, Tonearm, Cartridge, Phono. all 4 are critical and need to be evenly matched.

The TT has to be able to keep a constant 33 (or 45) speed and not allow any vibrations to reach the cartridge and these are the 2 areas where better TTs are better as any extra vibration will be picked up by the cartridge as noise..And thats why n your example the denon primarily may not be as good as the Rega.
 
Turntables mostly involve speed accuracy especially when loaded , then internal resonances and LF isolation . These are dependent on (heavy) plinth design, plinth and platter damping and isolation feet.
Tone arms typically come in 9 inch or 12 inch length , can be anything else if you design it ! Arm tube cabling is typically a low capacitance design and very thin to prevent adding any forces ( at the pivot ) as the arm tube moves across the disc. Good insulation is required to keep cross talk down. The tone arm itself is made of material that would damp resonances that travel down it. They you have high mass and low mass tone arms depending on what type of compliance range the designer is attempting to accommodate. And of course an anti-skate system if desired.
The cartridge is the biggest variable here. Often people buy using other peoples opinion without knowing what the rest of the system is. That is generally hard to find out often . So they end up liking it or disliking it depending on how it sounds in their own system !
Many factors involved here. Cantilever type, the stylus shape , cantilever mounting, the signal generator ( MM, MC, Piezo, strain guage, capacitance etc !). Then matching the mass and compliance with the tone arm to get a low system resonance with damped peak to minimise rumble and other unwanted LF pickup......

Isn't quite that simple if you really want to get into all aspects of the performance.
But there is an easy way out. Find out the most popular cartridge in your price range and use that. Since it has been used with favorable reports in several different systems, most likely it should be good in yours too !
 
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