New Audio Technica ART9XA Up and Running.....

ART-9's are pretty good carts. Good detail and fast. Just keep the stylus clean and you should good for a long time. 

Thanks to the OP's (and Raul's) guidance on another thread, I just this minute ordered a new ART9XA.  It is destined for my SME V, which is being overhauled by Alfred Kayser in Canada, including a single Cardas lead from cartridge to preamp.  Just switch out a couple resistors in the Classe Six to bump the gain up to about 63db and I should be back in vinyl nirvana within a few weeks.

BTW, I was able to track down the current AT 15% discount coupon, which shaved nearly $200 off the order.

Yes, congrats to Avanti1960 on a smart pick from considerable research - and his resulting enjoyment!

Very good news! We now have a better ART9. I may go for the XA too :-)

Yes, but the XA version is more of a replacement for the ART7 than it is a replacement for the ART9.  So, those who switch from the ART9 to the 9XA will need a bit more phono gain. It's all good, however.

Absolutely lewm.  Potential buyers, choose carefully.  The new XI and XA are quite different.  The XA is non-magnetic (air) core, a design that is inherently low in output.  A-T had to put on its thinking cap to update the ART9XA's predecessor, the ART7, upping its output from .12mV to .2mV in the XA.

By contrast, the ART9XI, with its magnetic core, has .5mV output (but apparently introduces magnetic distortions that are inevitable with such cores).

If I had gone with the XI, my preamp's standard MC gain of 57db would have been fine.  To utilize the XA, I'm having to bump the gain to 63 or 65db by switching out two internal resistors.