Cartridge Recommendation

Get an old (nos if possible) audio technica 155lc and forget the moving coil ratrace.
bob

Dear friend: Shelter 901.
Enjoy.
Raul.

Kjl, if you don't know just how good your 17d2 is, you deserve to lose 2000$ trying to upgrade your system. Dynavectors are fast carts whose musical virtues have been recognized. maybe your problem lies in your tube phono stage which is having problems dealing with the 17d2's output of .23mv. if i had your money to spend, i'd look into the dyna PH 75 phono which is a steal at 500-600$.it matches the cart and will probably eat your existing phono section alive. then you'll rediscover just how tuneful a dynavector cartridge is. dyna is all about prat, which is a rare commodity in audio. few components regardless of price achieve the basic fundementals of prat. if it don't boogie, it ain't worth having!

Kjl,
Rather than contribute to this hailstorm of recommendations I'd like to ask a few questions:

1. Could you list your system so we have the full picture? 'Dogcanskate' seemingly knows what phono stage you've got but it's a mystery to most of us.

2. What are your musical preferences and priorities?

3. In what ways does your present cartridge fail to satisfy? What are you seeking in a new one?

If you can put your request in fuller context you'll get responses more tailored to your needs.

If your phono stage can handle the 17D2, then it has enough gain to go with a slightly higher cartridge output easily. For the $2k budget stated, I'd recommend a ZYX R-100 Fuji(version with the 0.4mv output) for that JMW tonearm. It is every bit as good as a Shelter 901, but a better match for the JMW 9.

However, I always recommend that the other items on the analog unit be considered when planning an upgrade of this kind of expense. It is more beneficial to upgrade the deck or arm, than to get a cartridge that costs more than the deck/arm together. Remember that the deck/arm is providing the environment in which the cartridge has to perform. Improving this playing environment will yield higher levels of performance from your existing cartridge, than will buying a more expensive cartridge. While you may get smoother presentation or other benefits from upgrading the cartridge, the musical information retrieval will still be limited by the deck/arm, so you will not get full benefits from the more expensive cartridge.

That is why people upgrade their decks and arms. If you could get top megabuck performance with any entry-level deck/arm just by getting an expensive cartridge, then nobody would bother upgrading their decks/arms. Try to achieve an even balance in your analog components.