Has anyone upgraded from an AudioTechnica ART9?

Dear @jbhiller  : Over 90% of we music lovers/audiophiles belongs/own cartridges in the average/mediocre quality performance and only 5%-8% really own and KNOW the differences between the " mediocrity " and the very top true quality cartridge performance.
 Normally many of us can't own and play in the big/major cartridge league/class because its extremely high prices, inssane for we " mere mortals ".

The Lyra Etna/Atlas, Anna diamond, Goldfinger and the like belongs to that " major league " where almost all the cartridges named here just can't " touch " it, not even near of it. As I said is other totally different " league " no matters what.

The vintage ones are part of that " mediocrity ". I owned and still own several vintage cartridges and made it " thousands " of evaluations against modern designs and if it's true that some vintage ones can compete with today designs it's true that are far away to compete with the " major league ".

Btw, @lewm  the ART2000 ( that I owned ) is a BS of MC AT cartridge and I have a great respect for AT because I owned or listened almost all its past/today cartridge catalogue.
I think that when any one of us are taking opinions from other gentlemans and especially in cartridges we have to be sure which kind of quality performance could have the home system of the gentlemans that offered those opinions, against which other cartridges made it its evaluations in their own systems and their priorities/preferences in music/sound quality performance.
For many of us is very easy to spend " other person money ".

I had the opportunity to have in my system not only the Etna or the Goldfinger but other " major league " cartridges when I made a review of a vintage cartridge.
The top cartridges came from friends of mine that were at my place during that evaluations/tests in my review. So I'm talking by first hand experiences.
 Yes I own several cartridges in the mediocrity quality performance where some of them can give us 80%-85% of the quality performance of a " major league " one. Yes, that additional 10%-15% of quality performance has its price a very high one but it's worth to listen it and better yet to have/own it.

@jbhiller  the Etna is inside your budget and it's a major league player, it's a bullet proof alternative you will not found out any sign of the mediocre carrtridges as the AT9 and almost all we named here: is a total different " game ".

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

Chak
One thing you have to remember with vintage mm carts is that not everyone is prepared to take a chance on one no matter even if it is NOS.
It will still be 40 to 50 years old.
And also the dearth of styli is another crucial factor that puts a lot of people off.
No shortage of vintage mm on eBay SANS stylus!

For some the convenience of just going with a new readily available cartridge is half the battle.

@pani,  you sound like a fun and adventurous audiophile!  Keep posting!  Your candor and humilty is refreshing here. 

@rauliruegas , Am I reading this right--the Etna is a $9k cart?  Oh my.  Not happening.  Your overall expertise is, as usual, spot on  and I always appreciate it when you chime in.

To all, the Art 9 has miles on her and I'm just thinking because I like to think about this stuff well before buying--not because I'm patient, but because I like the process!

To be very honest, I'm not sure what I don't like about the ART9.  I could just repurchase it and be content.  Audio seems a bit different than jobs, spouses/partners, etc.  It seems sometimes curiosity says, "hey, this is a fun area of life to experiment so be sure to try a ton of stuff.".  

@chakster , you make a good point on moving on.  Fremer's words about the ART 1000 make me very curious.  

@uberwaltz

One thing you have to remember with vintage mm carts is that not everyone is prepared to take a chance on one no matter even if it is NOS.It will still be 40 to 50 years old. And also the dearth of styli is another crucial factor that puts a lot of people off.No shortage of vintage mm on eBay SANS stylus! For some the convenience of just going with a new readily available cartridge is half the battle.

This is why i have mentioned Miyajima.

BUT

Over the years we had huge topic about vintage MM and almost everyone who ever tried some vintage MM "cart of the month" was so happy about it (tons of feedbacks), so your comment is irrelevant. Yes, some of them are rare, but most of us have/had them all somehow. I want to point you that the most problematic vintage MM cartridge (Technics P100 mk4 or 205 mk4) is notorious for dead suspension, but it was the most popular in that topic and everyone raved about it. It was always the most expensive one and still is the most expensive, i would say overpriced, VdH service was terribly expensive too. People are strange. I do not recommend such cartridges since i tried many samples to make sure it is problematic and not for purists (who does not want to bother with refurbishing). What i do recommend is actually does not have any problem with dampers etc, the rubber in the damper is much better that Technics rubber and for this reason none of them degrades it time (at least we can’t notice that by ears or visually).

Regarding vintage MC everyone knows that FR-7fz by Ikeda has sealed suspension. Nobody never seen a bad 40 years old sample (if it wasn’t physically damaged by someone). This is a proper design for decades, but i want to remind you about some modern cartridges that simply does not designed to survive in time, suspension on such new carts degrades faster than stylus tip. I remember such comments from the owners on audiogon. This is one of the reason i always repeat that high price does not mean superb quality. This is a problem of some modern LOMC, you may think they are better and easy to service, but the policy of manufacturer’s support/service does not even expect service, just an exchange to a new sample (you know this). They are made for reach people, definitely not for everyone.

So everyone can find good and bad things about each type of cartridges (NEW vs. OLD ... MM vs. MC ... you name it).

Personally i would never buy even $2k cartridge for myself anymore, but for some people even $9k is not a problem. There is no universal rules, we can only mention some facts and share our personal experience, but we may have completely different point of views. This is like TUBE vs. SOLID STATE ... or DIGITAL vs. ANALOG ...

My point of view: It is better to buy 3-5 different top vintage MM or a few decent vintage MC than just to buy one $5k modern cartridge. But anyway, this is just my philosophy regarding cartridges.

Seriously Chak...
" my comment is irrelevant"
Really??

And of course all of yours are.


If you think in today’s age that the lack of oem stylus is not a major reason for people to look elsewhere than vintage MM then you are not in touch with reality imho.
No offense.......


Anyways time to leave this point as it will only derail the thread and nobody can argue with you Chak, you have all the answers.
God bless.