Hear my Cartridges....🎶

Agree with you Dover on your Shure rankings.....
Despite Princi's preferences, the V15/III/SAS sounds more refined than the ML140HE.
Just be aware that the substitution of the SAS stylus improves the 'standard' V15/III and its ranking ahead of the 140HE would not guaranteed without stylus upgrade.
I suspect that if Shure had given the ML140HE a better designed body (more like the Ultra 500)....it could sound better than it does.
The Ultra 500 is in a different class altogether 🤗
It's refinement, cohesion, transparency and detail retrieval is impressive.
No matter what I throw at it (genre-wise)....I never tire of listening to this super cartridge.
Certainly amongst the top of my MM cartridge collection.

Will be interesting to hear it against the 'King'.....the Palladian 🧐

Henry, didn´t I tell you ; ) Never got tired of listening ..... since spring 1989.
David (dlaloum) also knew it: "sounds good everywhere". Indeed.
Is your Ultra 500´s stylus holder brown or grey ?

The stylus holder on mine is grey.
Is there any significance to the different colours?

Good to see new activity here. As halcro knows I have never been a big fan of Shure cartridges. While I have admired the things that they do well like the great tracking and sense of composure, in my systems they have always sounded dynamically polite and lacking natural instrumental color. I must say that I really enjoyed the sound of two of the three Shures being considered here. I may have to reconsider.

I completely agree with both your assessments of the cartridges even if I would describe what I hear somewhat differently. I listened to the V15 first and I found much to like. I liked the sound of Ronstadt’s voice with this cartridge a lot; for the wrong reasons, however (more on that later). But, instrumental sounds are missing high frequency content so they sound too covered. Not meaning to take liberties, but I think this may be one of the reasons that Halcro feels it sounds “more refined “ than the ML140. Perhaps also why Dover refers to it as “colored”. When missing highs instrumental sounds tend to sound more “full bodied”. The ML140, as Dover says, sounds clangy. There is an uneven emphasis of the upper mids/lower highs range that causes the piano and vibes to sound glangy. What I meant by “I liked it for the wrong reasons” is that I think that because of its reticence in the highs the V15 hides the effects on the high frequencies of the way the vocals were recorded. I would bet that they used the Aphex Aural Exciter on the vocals. It is commonly used on pop vocals and it has a distinctive sonic signature; like a high frequency halo that rides on top of the vocals. I find it annoying as it adds what to my ears is an unnatural harshness.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exciter_(effect)

I think that the V15 masks those high frequency artifacts and the ML140 lays them bare and perhaps exaggerates them. I think this lets the V15 sound more refined by comparison.

The Ultra 500 strikes the best balance and I agree it is the best of the three. It’s tonal balance is actually closer to that of the V15 than the ML140, but not covered sounding and with more detail than the V15. It’s piano sound is by far the most natural with enough body and without the clanginess. One can still hear the processing on the vocals, but not nearly as much and doesn’t emphasize it like the ML does. Hadn’t heard this record in quite a while. Ronstadt sounds great; a nice sense of honesty and sincerity in her singing.

Yes, would be great to hear the Ultra compared to the Palladian even though the Decca is “King” in my book.

Thanks for the fun comparison.

Apology for the incorrect use of it’s/its.  Twice I overrode the spellchecker; apparently it still won ☹️.