Cart Recommendations

Demoing is going to be really hard.  This is why I bought the Paua from my dealer, knowing I'd sell it in a week.  i wanted to hear the sound in my system, which is all that really matters.  My dealer actually put the Paua up for sale on audiogon if you want to take a look.


Transfiguration is a lot more natural, and may get you more of what you want moving from the Dynavector.  The dealer I work with sells all the carts above, so may be a good resource (and he is a VPI dealer) for picking his brain on what will be best for your needs.  Let me know if you want to get in touch with him down the road.  Happy demoing!

A local dealer sells VPI and Graham, so can construct a similar system to mine, but I know that auditioning will not provide a complete impression on how the cart will perform in my room.  I just want to get a general feel for the cart's signature sound to see if it's appealing to me.

I want to couple that with opinions from folks here for some direction based on your experiences, too.  I'm not chasing the "perfect" sound (whatever that may be), but I'm just hoping that all of this information can get me down to a few options to make it a little less of a crap shoot in finding something that makes me happy (for now).

Audio Technica ART-9 is a bargain and hard to beat. Period.

I ran the Dyna XXIIMKII for a while and now have the ART 9. Though the AT did not replace the Dyna so I did not have the opportunity to compare head-to-head my sense is that the ART 9 is pretty darn better across the board. For $1K it is an unbelievably good cartridge. 

Sounds like I need to pick up an ART 9 to at least try out before going in another direction.  If it, for some reason, doesn't work out on my system, I can always put it on my son's RP6.