MM, MC, or MI cartridge

I’ll just say I think Grado and Soundsmith have something good going with MI. But yes, implementation is everything.

Hey Lew - I haven't researched it, I just have never seen another cartridge company talking about stylus lives of 2500-3000 hours. I typically hear 1500. Maybe 1000. If you listen a lot, a VDH will last 3-4 years. If you use another brand and get 75% of the life (probably optimistic) and it costs $500 (or more) to service the cartridge and replace the stylus, that would equate to a savings of over $125 a year (5 decent records). Plus the aggravation factor, especially if you are like me and don't have quality spares laying around to use while the work is taking place.

I don't think the upper VDH cartridge stylus replacements are much if any different than the low-mid models, so if you get higher level one, your ongoing costs shouldn't be much if anything more. A dealer I trust more than any other recommended/sold a barely used VDH to me over 10 years ago and I haven't felt the need to switch. I don't enjoy constantly testing new equipment (especially cartridges) back and forth, and unless you have a multi armed table, it is not a quick and easy thing to do. It is very difficult to remember what something sounds like in an A/B test. I'm not a tinkerer and am mainly interested in having the music I like playing as close to sounding live as possible.

Dear @sokogear  : "  van den Hul cartridges use a unique designed.shaped stylus "

Your statement is a misunderstood and is wrong.

VDH S, Ortofon Replicant 100 and Paratrace all are the same stylus shape and comes from Gyger ( do you know that the humble Goldring 1042 comes with the S shaped stylus tip?, well it comes with ! !   ). Please read this post coming from a professional re-tipper that really know what he is talking about.

All these information including the Goldring characteristic are in the long MM thread:

R.

Is there a MI cartridge that can better the sound of a Lyra Atlas SL?

@mglik - Better is hard to say since preference can be very subjective and dependent upon how well a cartridge matches an arm and system. A Moving Iron design that could prove a worthy competitor is the Grado Epoch3 at $12K or possibly even their Aeon3 at $6K. Different balance which may appeal to certain listeners compared to the Lyra.