Purple Heart = Purple Rain?

@schubert, Purple Heart is the type of wood used for the cartridge body.  Thanks for your service. 

Add me add me to the list of people who had QC issues with the Purple Heart.   

@big_greg :
Kron doesn't offer much of a warranty other than if you have a problem come back to me & 100% won't cover any stylus issue because you can
always point to user error , so thats a big gamble for me. 

I wish there was a way to audition all these Soundsmith , Kiseki, Ortofon, AT carts....I have a pretty discerning ear (music producer) not sure I'd hear the $5000 vs $700 difference .. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@tommypenngotti I didn't ask Kron, but assumed "grey market".  

I recently picked up a Soundsmith Aida II and really like it.  I like the people behind it too.  I bought mine second hand and it didn't have a stylus guard.  I contacted Soundsmith to see if I could buy one and they sent me one free.

Tommy, you would shock to hear how little difference there is between a $160 cartridge and a $2000 cartridge. Between the $2000 cartridge and the $5000 cartridge there is even less. The best policy is to stay away from the cottage manufacturers and stick with the larger better funded ones. Their QC is usually much better. I examine each cartridge under magnification and I can say that Ortofon, Clearaudio, Soundsmith, Audio Technica and Lyra make precision products and I can not imagine that you would go wrong with any of them. Between these companies there is a good mix of MC, MM and MI cartridges, something to suit everyone. 

"you would shock to hear how little difference there is between a $160 cartridge and a $2000 cartridge. Between the $2000 cartridge and the $5000 cartridge there is even less."

Mijostyn's observation  is pretty much how my ears hear top of the food chain carts. You start squinting your eyes to hear the differences. Keeping that perspective in mind, the ART9 offers much of what the "super carts" do. 

I'm surprised how well a  $400 Soundsmith Otello sounds on my VPI.
It's clearly not the $10K Strain gauge, but having a solid system(which you do), will play a lot of great $1-2K carts without you wondering if you're missing something.