cartridge recommendations

John,
I see your Luxman L505U has a MC section that goes down to .3mv. I would recommend the Dynavector XXMKII. Is has an output of .28mv which is lower than the rest of the recommendations mentioned above, but should probably work just fine. They mate very well with VPI and about $500.00 under your budget.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand the responses to your question johnm21.

The Orpheus is no longer in production. It has been replaced by the Proteus. It has an output of .2 MV. I don't know what the maximum gain is for your Luxman but I would not buy the Proteus unless you have at least 60 db of gain available.

If you have not replaced the feet on your VPI with Stillpoints, I would recommend doing so before buying another cartridge. If you do not have your Vpi sitting on Stillpoints with a good platform such as an HRS, Symposium, SRA, or Ginko sitting beneath everything I suggest you do that before buying a new cartridge. Those changes will yield huge improvements to your analog playback.

Elinor -
My Classic 3 sits on a 3" maple shelf. In your opinion, would my table still benefit from sitting on Stillpoints? If so, why?
Thanks

The Proteus is a $3900 cartridge way beyond the $2500 budget, you can find a used Orpheus for under $2500, all day. I agree with the Stillpoints and platform tweak. Really, a great match for the VPI classic with the unipivot tonearm is the DELOS by Lyra, and its only $1500.

Elinor...my experience with a Gingko platform with my VPI is that it absolutely ruined the sound. VPIs have to be solidly grounded to the center of the earth for best performance.