Has anyone upgraded from an AudioTechnica ART9?

Raul, Your post is very interesting to me, because I have always wondered whether you can get your money's worth in the $10K and up price range.  You apparently think the answer is yes, but for a very limited few cartridges that you named.  As you know, there are many others in the same price range.  Have you sampled some ultra-expensive cartridges that don't impress?  My neighbor who lives only a few hundred yards away has a very nice system that I have heard many, many times. I believe I have heard an Etna and one of the very costly Clearaudio cartridges at his house, in a Durand Telos tonearm and lately in a top line Schroeder tonearm on his Doehmann turntable (which I rank very highly).  I wasn't blown away by any of his very expensive cartridges, but maybe that is partly because I am not a big fan of his current speakers.  I far prefer the sound I get at my house from either of my two systems with at least 3 or 3 of my own cartridges.  Which goes to show you.... Something.

Raul, your post is intriguing.  $5k is not in the budget (yet) so I cannot move on that Etna. Nontheless, your sage words are not lost on me.  I'll keep a lookout come December when I may have cash to go that high. 

I think most designers are searching for the elusive quality of "neutral".

This is the only statement I disagree with. 
Most designers today as just that..designers. They want to make something special that they can sell for xyz dollars. Special stuff always sound "special", not original. It is a pity that so many of them are out there to screw up the sound of the original music. Then there are reviewers who give them 10/10, to make things even more miserable.

Only a handful of the manufacturers today really know how to preserve the signal while improving fidelity. In that respect good old vintage stuff was much more consistent.

I think the best modern designs blow away the so-called "classics", for frequency response, neutrality, dynamics, you-name-it.  Have you ever heard a Marantz 7C preamplifier in its original form, or the Marantz and McIntosh amplifiers that are so adored and that still bring prices in the 5-figure category?  How about a Phase Linear or SAE amplifier, or the Harmon-Kardon SS preamplifier that HP once declared to be the best available (back in the 70s)? I've owned some of the former group of tube gear, and they are massively colored, overly warm, with muddy bass response, etc.  The solid state stuff had different issues but was also awful by modern standards. Anyway, we can agree to disagree.
Have you gone ahead with your plan to purchase the EMT phono stage?

Just compare old Marantz, Denon, Yamaha, McIntosh, Quad to their latest models. 
I am not even talking about Western Electric :-)

Anyway, in some areas we have some better stuff today but in many areas we have lost too. The reason is, it’s all MBA driven.