SEMI-OBJECTIVE PHONO CARTRIDGE MEASURING FOR REAL COMPARISONS

When I read reviews of cartridges in almost any so called audiophile journal I read of sound stage and gritty and you name it.  Reviewers may tell you how  their favorite Rock  LP sounded so much clearer or whatever.   However, the instruments could have beenn electronic and/or  produced audio from speakers, or from some sort of electro-mechanical transducer.  When the group performs live, you don't hear vibrations from hand induced mechanical woud sheets, or skins, or lips pressed against a mouth piece, but loudspeakers.  So if they change speakers their sound will be different.   I humbly suggest that so-called acoustic instruments are the only way to test hifi gear.  I also cannot understand how perfect their memories are of sounds produced minutes apart.  I use a method that uses human hearing has the measuring device and objective procedures as the data generator.

To actually perform listening tests of various cartridges is much more difficult than you can imagine. If you just play the same record for each, you have to play a short piece.  When you change cartridges and adjust the tracking force, that takes time.  You have to adjust the volume to be exactly the same as that of the other cartridge.  During all those gaps, you will loose memory of the sound. Doing this with two is near impossible, and three or more is even more impossible. 
 
The only sane way to do it is to use several records of different genres and to record them in highest quality possible onto a computer. Do not use Pop or Rock as much of what you may be hearing is are electro-mechanical transducers. Then every track should be normalized in volume, and every listening sample the exact same length.  You should then burn a CD or 24/96 DVD with track markers. Now you can instantly compare each cartridge's sound.  To facilitate this, you should pick one as a reference.  So sample 1 vs reference, sample 2 vs reference.  That simplifies it; one versus one. Jot down which SOUNDS THE MOST REALISTIC using a simple method, like +/- 1, 2, 3. Stick to your criterion. Do that for all cartridges and of, say, 5 different records. Now you will have real listening test data. You should average all the record date to one number for each cartrige. Anything less is just vague impressions, confused memory and vivid imagination. You are using real human ears, listening objectively.

I sent such a test disc to 3 people who had a combined live music listening experience of 150 years and were long time audiophiles.  I cannot vouch for how they chose to use the disc.  I included a simple data collection sheet.  Just press the button and right down a number.  Most reported  that the lowest cost cartridge with near the poorest measured frequency response had the best sound.  Of course, we are leaving out the loudspeakers used.  That complicates things does it not?

I still trust my results as my system actually measures fairly flat at my usual listening position.  As a result my of choosing the most real  cartridge that I have ever heard in my life, I measured its frequency response.  It was also the cartridge with the most flat frequency response that I have ever measured!  The results from the aforementioned respondents did not correlate in anyway with how they rated the cartridges.  So, this may demonstrate the value of that which you may read in many audiophile reviews.