Love the shelter 501MK2, what's the next step

Thanks for the feedbacks.

How much therapy can one get for $5K!.

Up to $5000.00 key word is "UP" it doesn't have to be.

I am currently happy at $1200.00! What get confusing is when I look at Needledoctor.com and there is 80 cartridges available from $1200.00 to $5K! it get complicate real fast. and than there is another 32 above $5K.

My whole cartridge experience is with one.. the Shelter 501MK2 and I don't think that any dealer have a large selection that you can borrough for a weekend. Secondly, it is kind of a catch 22 with the dealers they like what they sell hardly objective and you can't blame them.

The only information that I can gather from here and published reviews.

The problem with HIFI is as your disposable income increase with age your hearing ability goes down.

If you go from a 501 to a Harmony, Kleos or any other suggestion, what benefit should I expect or am I limited by the tonearm as Audiofeil indicated ? then it opens another can of worns, if I change the tonearm, what would I gain.. but that is for another day, I intend put some mileage on the SME first. it is easier to justify a cartridge as I had the shelter for 4 years.

Kleos will give you longer service, incredible stability and tracking and also the details you've never heard before upto hearing overdubbing echoes especially if you listen via headphones.
I'm so addicted to Lyras that still believe that better than Lyra could only be better Lyra.
I was many times recommended to try out Shelter 501MKII instead of Lyra Argo, but Shelter did not convince me at all. Due to the one of the highest accuracy, Lyras may have higher noise floor. It would in most cases seem similar if you A/B-ing the tape deck with or without Dolby NR as you would compare Shelter or Benz to Lyra.
As to tonearm limitations, Kleos would sing on stock Rega RB250 or any other basic tonearms as long as compliance is OK which is OK in your case. You can also work on upgrading tonearm wires for the remains of your budget. Audiofeil is a dealer of expensive toys with luxury point of view:-)

That he is but in this case, I think, he is correct. I would never put $5k cartridge on less than, say, $7k arm and $10/15k table to play through less than $5k phono stage, at least.

Dear Firewall: On that budget there are a lot of options that could outperform your 501. looking to your system seems to me that if you want to improve the analog quality perfromance level my first step ( if I was you. ) should be a better Phonolinepreamp because is here where the pick-up delicate and sensitive cartridge signal pass through a whole " hard " proccess to amplify that signal ( some times 10K times: 80dbs+. ) and must do it with adding no noise/distortions that degrade the cartridge signal. Is in this Phonolinepreamp where the cartridge signal is equalized: inverse RIAA eq. curve, to achieve a frequency response according with was in the recording and this RIAA eq. must do it with out frequency deviations that again degrade the cartridge signal.

Even that your PHD is a nice unit IMHO can't honor top LOMC cartridges for these ones can shows at its best.

In the other side and before take that " road " my advise is that you try the other analog source alternative: MM/MI, that IMHO is very good too and where you don't need to make any up-date in your system to enjoy it. This MM/MI alternative can not only even the quality perfromance of the 501 but outperform it overall. The Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood is a good place to start.. You will be surprised with its quality perfromance for less than 1K.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

If you like your Shelter 501, the Shelter Harmony is worthy of consideration. I like mine a lot. It has pretty low compliance though so make sure your arm has enough effective mass to flex that short cantilever.