Da Benz?

I would look into MM/MI cartridges if you want something that sounds more like original tape. From current production, I recommend:

1.) Ortofon 2M Black
2.) Audio Technica VM760SLC, VM750SH, VM740ML
3.) Nagaoka MP-500, MP-300

Not all, but most MC cartridges sound bleached out and unengaging in the midrange and have over exaggerated treble. Making them sound lean and giving a false sense of dynamics and detail.

For example, I recently listened to a Lyra Atlas and it was like listening to a special effects show. It was ridiculous. There was no real music coming out, just a bizarre bastardization.

If you like warm and relaxed I don’t think you will go wrong with a Grado. It is also a good match with the SME tonearm. That Conrad-Johnson has three gain settings to match any cartridge you decide on !  

Benz LPS  ....much better.

Invictus......can't believe you called the Atlas a bizarre bastardization of music.  It is certainly one of the best cartridges made.  Perhaps it wasn't set up well, or the preamp was inadequate....but the Atlas stands high in high end.

the el cheapo Ortofon Red is quite good, so maybe one of their more expensive cartridges would be worthy of audition

@stringreen  It was properly set-up on a VPI Titan turntable by people who have been in analog business their entire lives. This was not the first time I heard a Lyra cartridge sound overly bright. 

I listen to live music at least once a month. Small venues, large venues, jazz, blues, classical, rock, etc. I attend Chicago's Symphony Orchestra regularly. As well as the Green Mill for jazz. 

What the Lyra Atlas/VPI combo played was not music. It was something, but it was not music. Live music does not sound like this.

Neither does tape. I've listened to master tapes of local jazz bands recorded on reel to reel and they don't sound like that either.

I hate reading reviews of these expensive MC cartridges where the reviewer claims that these cartridges pull more detail from the record's surface. In reality, they don't pull more of anything. They dramatically over exaggerated what's already there. 

This super show of hyper detailed sound has to stop. It's ridiculous.