Turntable upgrade recommendations: SME vs AMG vs Technics vs other

Lewm, while I have nowhere near the scope of experience as Raul, or any personal experience with those 10k+ cartridges, I do own a number of modern (near) top performers like Ortofon A95 and Anna, Transfiguration Proteus, Accuphase AC-6 (same as MSL) and vdHul Colibri XPW. Without reservation these are truly great cartridges, but not in a different league than Miyabi Standard, Ikeda 9 Rex or AT1000mc, to name but a few. I seriously doubt that would be the case with those cartridges that break the 10k barrier.

How many cartridges over $7500 can possibly be sold every year? And so many manufacturers, some who only make cartridges.

Lyra, Koetsu, Ortofon, van den Hul, Soundsmith, My Sonic Lab, Clear Audio, Dynavector, and even Grado are brands I've heard of that have cartridges >$7500. Are all these marketing/halo effect offerings are they actually readily available?

Also....a $70K phono stages I saw mentioned? How many of those have EVER been sold? What are these things made out of?

Dear @edgewear  : "" Comparing new and vintage cartridges in my own system over the years has confirmed the impression that no major sonic breakthroughs have been accomplished over the last 30-40 years of cartridge design. Not by Ortofon and not by others. But I’ll admit, prices did go through the roof. ""

I totally agree with you and is what I posted several times here and in other forums. Price gone well not gone but runned as a Ferrari Enzo in cartridges with out a true palpable benefit.

I never had the opportunity to listen the Xquisite cartridge but perhaps is the only cartridge through the years with a NEW design characteristic:

R.

I think Soundsmith, for one, has been quite innovative with the Strain Gauge and the Hyperion, plus improvements like DEMS (Dynamic Energy Management System) across cartridge lines.

@sokogear

To answer your question about how many people buy $10k cartridges and $70k phono stages: probably alot more than either you or I think, or could imagine. Many of these high end manufacturers are based in Switzerland, probably for a reason: lots of money from all over the world to buy their products, and the $70k FM223 phono linearizer (phono stage) has a 2-3 month wait list. Look at the new cars these days: $200k cars selling for $350 because the manufacturer can only make 1000 a year (e.g. Porsche GT3), and that’s not even touching Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bugatti, et al.  In other markets, look at Rolex watches:  a $12k Rolex new is selling for $40k used.  In that market, a $70k phono linearizer could seem like a bargain!