Where diminishing returns stop working

I have spent half my films on diminishing returns: DACs, cables, turntables, the curve always flattens. Cartridges are the one place I say it does not, especially above $1,000.

My own ladder went like this. The Sumiko Amethyst, the cartridge McIntosh fits to the MT5, already performs excellently. The Songbird, at about $1,000, is two times better than the Amethyst, and the Starling, at around $3,000, is two to two and a half times better than the Songbird.

People will tell you the opposite. Well, I strongly disagree. Each step opened everything up, micro detail more effortless and natural, dynamic range wider, the presentation more organic, and with the Starling the noise floor did not drop, it was gone.

This journey is like getting glasses for the first time. You did not know the world was so blurry until suddenly it wasn't, and that is how it felt: the old cartridge had been hiding things I never knew were missing. None of it happens, though, without a competent phono stage and a carefully curated system around the cartridge.

Anywhere else I tell you where to stop. With cartridges, and a system that can show it, the curve still climbs.