The Art-9 is replacing an Ortofon Rondo Red (~$800 MSRP a few years ago for reference).
At this point it sounds like I would expect a good $1,000 cartridge to sound.
Right away I hear more detail, and specifically the soundstage is much wider. I can only attribute that to channel separation. Instruments are more distinctly placed in the soundstage as well. There is a slight glare/grain??? in the higher frequencies, but compared to the Rondo the sound is much more open and pleasant.
I am guessing at this point that the glare/grain?? will relax a bit after I get some more hours on it, and that it can be addressed further with VTF and preamp loading but that remains to be seen. I won't play around with it until I get closer to 50 hours on it.
In any case I like it and will surely keep it.