Thoughts and Non Thoughts

  Can a cartridge slow down the music? The record is still spinning at 33&1/3 rpm, right? Yet somehow the music is less frantic, compared to an AT and a Shure cart.  The timing, the tempo - it feels “right” with the Nagaoka MP-110. I don’t know how it does it. Perhaps less of the upper mid emphasis of the AT, or the upper mid bass bump of the Shure.  All I know is that I can relax to the music. If that’s what others call refinement then so be it. It just sounds smoother. Maybe the music doesn’t slow down, my brain waves do.