Shelter 501 versus Soundsmith Zephr ?


If you have a JMW tonearm/vpi table, does anyone have an opinion of which cartridge would sound better? Shelter 501 versus Soundsmith Zephr ?
128x128bluelight988
I ordered an SMMC1 and it is due to arrive at my house in 2 days from today on May 6th so after I set it up and play it for a number of hours I will give you my initial impressions. I am looking forward to it. I will be curious how this design sounds different from an MC cartrdige like the 501. I grew up on a shure cartridge used on a Pioneer PL 12-D turntable when I was a teenager. There was plenty of bass in that set up. Basie :)
I now have 10 hours on the Soundsmith SMMCI as of may 12 2011 and the cartridge does not sound good so far. I will give it time to break in. very erratic, weird sound anomolies and generally lousey sound.
It turns out that the sound anomolies I had caused to happen by not knowing how to properly load my adjustable phono stage. Just checked with the maker of the preamp/phono stage and they told me how to properly load it at 47K and now the cartridge sounds great, is really starting to open up, large images, a lot of presence, and musically engaging. Definitely worth trying out a sound smith cartridge if you have not already done so ! This is an SMMC1 Sound Smith cartridge, just to clarify. I have heard that the Zephr is an even better match with the VPI tonearms. No complaints here.
I agree, shelter compliance is too high, zephyr is hard to beat on vpi tonearms