Recently purchased a new Ace Spacedeck and 10" Ace Anna arm fitted with a Kiseki Purpleheart NS cartridge. Replaced a 15 year old original Spacedeck/Spacearm fitted with an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze cartridge which I donated to a good buddy in need of a quality vinyl outfit. Love both cartridges with a nod towards the Kiseki in that it provides more detail and a bigger soundstage than the Ortofon. Both are sweet, highly engaging, and musical sounding cartridges which in my experience work well with the Nott tonearms. From a practical standpoint though, the nod goes to the Ortofon. Two items of note re: the Kiseki; 1) the cantilever's low angle and proximity to the long and flat bottom of the wooden cartridge body creates issues with warped records which I never experienced with the Cadenza Bronze. The architecture of the Ortofon allows for warped records to pass underneath without touching the cartridge body, unlike the Kiseki. I've invested in a couple Vinyl Flat record flatteners and am much more careful when spinning records, being careful to check in advance if an album is warped. As far as reported 'hum' issues, I've never experienced that with either Nott. As far as set up issues? Not a problem! I have my very experienced dealer do that for me, way beyond my pay grade! As far as the Nott tables sounding 'dark', I can't really relate to that either, neutral maybe, but not dark. That said, my preference is towards neutrality, I don't like a tipped up top end because of the etched and bright sound often associated with it on certain recordings. I'll sacrifice the last "n'th" of detail if it means the remaining 99.999% sounds like music. The Notts paired with either of the above mentioned cartridges provide plenty of detail for my tastes.
