I can't comment on the Benz, but I hadn't heard that before.
For reference, when I was going through my upgrade decision process I had some great correspondence with VPI:
"The 3 does everything slightly better than the 1, it's like a car that they do a few changes to and Car and Driver says "There a 10 small changes but the end result is a much better handling car" same thing here. It is quieter, faster, deeper bass, larger stage but with more focus, a whole bunch of little things that add up to a better listening experience."
In general, VPI does not believe you need an ubber expensive cartridge to achieve a great listening experience. They typically will recommend cartridges costing from $600 to a little over $1000.
The differences between the Classic 1 and Classic 3 that I noted (everything exactly the same, just the table swapped out) were done with a $600 cartridge the Dyna 20x2 Low output. My experience was summed up pretty well by the quoted text above by VPI. In addition, however, when I went from the Dyna 20x2 low to the Dyna XX-2 MKII ($2000), the entire system went to a different level. So the quality and resolving power of the table revealed the differences in the cartridges.
Note: The Classic 1 was long gone when I purchased the XX-2 MKII, so I don't know if the Classic 1 would also have that much resolving power to reveal the real differences in the cartridges.
