Let's Say A Guy Wanted To Chose Between A Koetsu Jade and

Dear @daveyf  : Sorry, but Koetsu has no single " strength " as a top cartridges.

" more musical?? "  : well that depends the kind of audiophile first hand experiences with MUSIC/sound and his priorities.

For me musical is a " word/term " in audiophiles that normally has no real/true experiences very often with live MUSIC seated at nearfield position but " musical " could be anything in LP reproduction even for experimented audiophiles. A way to controversial " word " . I prefer to talk of what is rigth or wrong instead " musical ".

R.

@rauliruegas  One thing, as an ex-pro musician, I can tell you with some confidence, that there are no two people who will tell you that one person's sound is 100% 'right' and another's is 100% 'wrong'...per your supposition. Just like what is musical to one is not necessarily to another, however, I think we can say that most folks will enjoy a certain musical 'experience' in the same way that most (not all) others do.

@daveyf  : Agree, I was something " extreme " about. The issue is that musical almost means different " things " to audiophiles is a to " wide " word and that's why I usually do not use it.

R.

@mulveling  : The one Koetsu that like me ( at least the sample I listened ) was/is the Coralstone.

R.

@rauliruegas Jade and Coralstone are both on the warm side here. I ended up preferring the more dynamic, detailed, "sparkly" Blue Lace. Onyx and RSP are in the middle. I like those too. 

Yes, in fact, this year I have been exploring and enjoying more detail-oriented and "bright" cartridges like AirTight PC-7 and Shelter 7000. But Windfeld Ti still doesn't do it for me (midrange). No need to denigrate Koetsu; in some system iterations they were the only cartridge that sounded "right"!