MM, MC, or MI cartridge

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.

I read the threads from the link provided by @rauliruegas and it seems @needlestein was the only coherent poster. Raul is correct - I was wrong when I said VDH has a unique stylus design, but the end cartridges results with the stylus is unique.

Bottom line - what other cartridges state their styli last 2500-3000 hours? From people's experience, has anyone had cartridges other than van den Hul's last this long? I would bet most of these guys use so many different cartridges they lose track of how much time is on each one when they have them serviced.

Personally, I would only send my cartridges back to AJ van den Hul for service/maintenace, for any necessary worn parts replacement- be it stylus, cantilever, suspension, whatever. He made it originally and knows what it should be. He has the last word on his own products!

mglik, I am on the opposite side of your question. I own OEM versions of B&O MMC1 and MMC20CL.  I also own Acutex LPM320STRIII which I've heard both in its headshell adapter and in the Acutex Saturn adapter, which is much lower mass than any headshell.  All of these are MI types and they are fantastic cartridges.  The only MC type that I own that compares is the Ortofon MC2000, used with an external active gain stage into an MM phono input.  I would have a hard time choosing among these options. What I wonder is how much better could a $10K+ cartridge like the Lyra Atlas SL be. I'm sure someone is going to pipe up and say that the Atlas SL is better, but I need to hear it for myself.