Decided to try a SPU cartridge

Should you baulk at the rigid float a Schröder CB would be an excellent choice for an SPU N series, just make sure you order one with enough mass, somewhere around 20g or more with the brass mounting plate and order any fine adjustment options available.

I’m also running a Royal N but on a Schröder Reference and my expectations of a £1000 cartridge were far exceeded, once I’d got the setup tuned in. I bought the SPU as a stop gap and out of curiosity while I got my Transfiguration Proteus repaired but I haven’t been missing the Proteus and now it’s back, with a fresh stylus and suspension I’m in no hurry to fit it.

@yeti42 

I am certainly loving my Royal N, for me it just plays music and I am not missing any of the so called hifi elements.

In the UK I know people are changing there Kondo IOMs etc for the Royal N. It is a cartridge that is being championed by the designer and maker of Living Voice speakers, he has told me that it is without doubt his favourite cartridge.

cleeds, I finally found your definition of HTA, which you posted before my post about the difference if any between HTA and Zenith.  Your definition of HTA:

"Your cartridge is in perfect alignment on the horizontal plane when a line drawn between the two contact facets form a straight line pointing at the center of the record."

For a cartridge where the stylus is perfectly cut and mounted on its cantilever and the cantilever is perfectly straight (problems mentioned by Dover) and one of the conventional alignment algorithms is perfectly observed, then the condition you describe occurs twice over the course of playing an LP, at each of the two null points, where Tracking Angle Error = 0.  OK. That makes perfect sense. Now what is our definition of Zenith?  If Zenith = HTA, then it must refer to the orientation of the stylus tip in the groove.  That is not a conventional geometric definition of Zenith. Nor is it an aeronautical definition. (I consulted a close friend who is a pilot.)  That's OK as long as we know what we mean.

I am also an admirer at a distance of the Viv Float tonearms.  I'd probably have bought one already if they were not so costly, and if I did not have some questions regarding the rigidity of the pivot bearing, such as it is.  I have seen them for sale over the counter in Tokyo, at prices well below US prices.  Optional lengths seem to be 7, 9, 11, and 14 inches.  So one way to have high effective mass is to buy the longest one, but that would cause mounting problems on almost any normal turntable (too long), and there is the question of resonance of such a long arm tube.  If you worry a lot about Tracking Angle Error, TAE is much greater with any underhung tonearm than with a comparable typical overhung tonearm with an offset headshell, but my experience with another underhung, the RS Labs RS-A1, suggests one should not be concerned.  The longer the Viv, the less the TAE.  So that's another hypothetical advantage of the longer versions, if you care.  The less the TAE, the lower the skating force generated.  I would not worry about that, either. 

Okay, I'm taking a step backwards - I realized that the 4point and the ViV won't work on a SPU "G" but may likely work on SPU "N".  So I'm back to getting another tonearm.  I'm heavily favoring the Groovemaster II which I know works well with SPUs.  Also, I'll eventually purchase a Bokrand modified Ortofon arm to compare arms and especially because I like the idea of matching brands to my SPU cart.

I'm sticking with SPU "G" size because I want to compare on the the best SPU (hopefully my Century) to the original SPU.  I'm guessing that a new Ortofon Classic G will fit the bill.  Not sure how SPU "N"  compares to SPU "G" sonically, no incentive to experiment. 

Got a message from WAM that they don't evaluate stylus on SPUs - in retrospect I feel dumb/embarrassed for asking.  Getting a stylus angle correct doesn't apply much to spherical/elliptical stylus profiles as for a other stylus profiles.  Sometimes you just got to laugh at yourself.

I did notice that used SPUs don't state their hours usage.  Maybe SPUs are considered disposable and/or stylus replacement is cheap/easy?