Yet another wacko 'Help Me Decide' thread...

This amuses me. I'm back into high-end audio for only about 1-1/2 years after being out for a dacade of so. I don't even know what those are. I THINK I've seen the brandnames. LOTS of stuff out there!
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Heh heh - I hear you - it is hard to keep track of all the bits. The Airy is a moving coil cartridge and the Loricraft is a very good record cleaner. Both bring their own value to analog - I'm having a hard time deciding.

Overall enjoyment is the playback source. Bet on the cartridge!

Loricraft - every LP sounds better and you dig up more information than before and you wonder why you didn't get it earlier.

With the cart on the same (level of cleaness/dirty) LP, you only get a different presentation.

The Loricraft changes the playing field. BTW, I've no commercial interest in Loricraft, etc...

From a practical perspective, I would go with the ZYX. There are very inexpensive means to clean a record and chances are with a little effort you can get it close to where the Loricraft will get you, but there is nothing you can do manually that can work the magic that a good cartridge can do. When finances will allow, you can get the Loricraft and you will not have to replace a cartridge which you compromised on. In fact, you probably will hold onto the cartridge and then even with the Loricraft, you would have compromised the performance of your analog playback.