Proteus compared to MSL ultra eminent ex

Arsh, both Proteus and Ultra EX are excellent carts. I had them both and can tell you that they sound similar. Ultra EX is better cart for my ears - better dynamics and bigger soundstage. MSL makes one of the best carts on the market, maybe second to none. To answer your question - if you want sound different than Proteus you should go to different direction than MSL...

Surprised no-one has challenged the misinformation on the MSL. The MSL Ultra Eminent Ex is of a much, much later generation - more than 20 years later - than the Audiocraft mentioned, while the specs are nothing like it at all. I doubt the cartridges have much in common other than that the same bloke was involved in designing them, between 20 and 30 years apart.

I have been pondering the Ultra Eminent Ex after I purchased the My Sonic Labs Eminent Mono, which is a truly stunning performer, upstaging my long-term, much-loved Miyajima Zero. It manages to be revealing, detailed, composed, warm and full all at the same time. It’s had me pulling out mono recordings from rack after rack. Great match with my Allnic HA5000 head amp/H7000V phono stage too - plenty of gain to play with.

I currently have some very nice stereo cartridges, most notably the new Allnic Rose (which is really quite something incidentally and well worthy of consideration), and the Miyajima Madake. I moved on my Ikeda 9TT as in my setup it was a bit clinical, and have also moved on all my SPUs in recent times. Nevertheless another high-spec cart is always welcome.

At the moment I’m swithering between two options: the MSL Ultra Eminent - which is supposed to be an out and out detail meister with incredible dynamics - and the Hyper Eminent, slightly higher impedance (just over 1 ohm, not the 0.5 ohm of the Ultra) and supposed to be a shade warmer/a bit less about huge dyamic swings. I’m expecting to pull the trigger in the next week or two - should be an interesting addition to the stable.
Incidentally I heard the Proteus a few years back and, capable as it sounded, I was underwhelmed - though it may just have been a synergy thing as others have reported being impressed. Of course Transfiguration are no more so caution is advised if looking for a long-term purchase.

Sorry to read Transfiguration is OOB. Always wanted to try one

Thanks Vuckovic and Montesquieu. Very helpful info. I love my Proteus, but getting another very similar sounding cartridge may not be the way to go. Not sure. But the specs and descriptions of sound that I've read for the Ultra Eminent EX are very compelling.

When I bought my Proteus they were £2900 in the UK, the US price was $6000. It faced tougher competition in the US at that price.
I haven’t seen mention of which arm the OP is using but assuming it’s medium mass the Winfield Ti might be a good choice that gives a different flavour to a trans but I’ve no direct experience. With a higher mass arm the Anna comes into play.
I did hear my Proteus on a WT Versalex, when a friend replaced his Radikalised Linn with one and before I bought the Aretmis/Schröder. On the Versalex a Dyna DRT VX-1t was hard to forget, the Proteus wasn’t.

Despite Mijostyn’s opinion I find the Royal N surprisingly good considering its price, with no tracking issues yet encountered nor lack of bass. My arm at 18g plus the Royal N with its cheese at 16g gives a mass of 34g total, an Ortofon TA210 has an effective mass of 5g without a headshell, an SPU G type weighs in at 30g, so only a gram more in total than I have. Frank Schröder, when supplying the brass mounting plate, did suggest I could double it up with the aluminium one if necessary but I find no need to. What there was a need for is fine adjustment of VTA and VTF and I’m glad I went for these options when commissioning my arm but it’s still a sensitive blighter to set up, every screw tension seems to make an audible difference.