Is a Ortofon Black a step down from a Pickering XSV 3000

Dear @tzh21y  : Certainly not a downgrade and other than Ortofon exist other today cartridges that outperforms what you have on hand today:  Nagaoka, Audio Note series IQ, Audio Technica, Goldring, Garrot, et, etc.

@anthonya : ""  the old stuff last longer too and better materials  ""

please tell me why last longer. Which cartridges last longer than today ones? and which vintage cartridges came with better materials than today designs?

Btw, @lewm   """  stereoHedron shape which was exclusive to Pickering and Stanton cartridges of that day. I think the stereoHedron stylus was originally designed in order to accommodate 4channel audio LPs which had a brief lifetime in the marketplace. Frequency response out to 50,000 Hz  ""

stereohedron is just a name as the analog6 in AKG, or microline, shibate, or other stylus shape designs or the one that comes in your Acutex or any vintage/today cartridge designs.

And or you are wrong or have a high misunderstood that was designed for CD4 
Look the Grace F9E came with no line contact stylus shape and worked truly fine with CD-4 as did it the Technics 205/EPC 100C that goes out to not 50khz but over 100khz and came with ellipthical stylus shapes as the Audio Technica models that worked fine with the CD-4.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

Raul, I yield to your superior knowledge on this subject, but with all due respect, your post does not contradict mine, unless you are saying that the Stereohedron does not have an extended treble response.  I refer you to this article from the Sound Smith website: https://www.sound-smith.com/articles/stylus-shape-information
Here, Ledermann discusses the Shibata and Shibata-like stylus shapes, of which the stereohedron is one. Other companies had their own pet names for their similar "hyper-elliptical" stylus shapes which had a response out to 45kHz. The side benefit of that was their ability to play 4 channels LPs.  The fact that the Grace F9E (an elliptical) and the Technics cartridges you name may also be able to play "CD-4" does not negate my point about the Stereohedron.  Nor does it speak to the question of what LP Gear is selling as a replacement for the Stereohedron to use with vintage Pickering or Stanton cartridges that were originally sold with Stereohedron styli.  LP Gear say they are selling a Shibata-type replacement stylus, and it may perform very well on the Pickering and Stanton cartridges which originally were sold with the Stereohedron, but it is dimensionally slightly different from the Stereohedron, which may or may not alter the SQ. And that was my main point, in reference to Mijostyn's post.

that Audio Note IQ3 looks interesting.  Has anybody heard it?

Dear @lewm : Look the Stereohedron is not a " big deal " and the Shibata and Shibata like is and has wider contact with the grooves and you can confirm in the link I post here. You can see there that the stereohedron is similar to an elliptic, LAC ( Empire ), fine line or hiperelliptical and Shibata is way better in that regards. P.Lenderman has a misunderstood because the stereohedron is not a shibata like:

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Audio/80s/Audio-1981-03.pdf

Read the page 23 and you will see the fig. 4 that speaks for it self.

If LPGear replacement stylus comes with Shibata then it’s not even a fake but a better stylus than the original one !.

If I remember was Audio Technica the first or one of the first to use true Shibata stylus shape.

The Ortofon 2M Black comes with Shibata stylus shape.

R.

@lewm  : "  And or you are wrong or have a high misunderstood that was designed for CD4 "

that's what I posted and where you are wrong.

I own the 981MK2 and Pickering too and in no one of the original manual information speaks nothing about CD-4 as in other vintage cartridges coming from AT or Empire and others as Grace, etc.

Btw, in the the 4000D3 Empire stated in specific its design for CD-4 using even a better stylus tip " four dimensional miniature tip of only 0.001 mil tracing radius against the 0.003 of Stanton one where the Empire tracks perfectly at as low as 0.25grs. VTF ! ! ! this is really unique not that normal Stanton stylus tip.

As I told you " stereohedron " is only a name and nothing special. Even Stanton load impedance specs is 47kohms against the 100kohms spec for Empire, Grace and others.

@tzh21y  I own this reson and it's really good performer too and yes better than your Pickering:

https://www.reson.de/screen/product/reca/language/en

R.