Buena Vista at 45, one level higher

The first place I heard the Starling was not on a weak record. It was on the pressings I already thought were my best. It took them a level higher.

I had read the reviews and made a few phone calls, and I was ready to triple the stakes from the Songbird to a cartridge around $3,000, bought and not borrowed. Then the 45 rpm pressings came out: Miles Davis, Buena Vista Social Club, records I knew well. They were elevated further.

The soundstage expanded, and the imaging, layering and separation with it. Detail went up considerably, but never into fatigue and never surgical. The music became so organic that the performance was simply convincing, and the noise floor was gone; it is the very best thing I have heard in my listening room.

This is where I think a cartridge earns its price. Not on a tired pressing, where it only shows you the tiredness in more detail, but on a great one, where there is still music left in the groove that a lesser cartridge was leaving behind. It is also why I would not send a beginner straight to $3,000, because you need the records, the phono stage and the ears to hear what it finds.

Test an expensive cartridge on your best record. If it cannot raise that one, it is not worth its price.