@mijostyn : " My mind changes all the time ...."
Well almost everything is changing each second including our mind but this is not the issue due that if our mibnd is changing all the time then the audio reproduction home world will be a disaster/nigthmare.
Our targets needs to be really specific, clear/pristine and the way each one of us try to achieve all those targets is other and different subject.
In my case and through the time my targets were up-grading with necessary modifications " here and there " but my main targets dis not changes in its essence in the fundamental way. Of course that as we learned and through the years along new audio " technologies-improvements " and " new " know-how each time the audio system targets are near to be achieved till you decide ( I or we ) that it's time to in true enjoy the MUSIC as never before.
That's why I don't buy new top cartridges and when I started to live wirth the Essential 3180 I rediscovery my cartridges and thak's to my friends I listened almost all the today top cartridges ( not the Atlas Lambda Sl , yet ). My system is rigth on in the targets. For how long?, I don't know but my today listen sessions are " out of this audio world " where eacjh past up-graded to amps/speakers still surprise me.
I don't know how to explain when you are THERE because it's something that you have to experienced to know what THERE means and tghrough your posts maybe you are near but certainly not THERE yet and that's why you follow spending money in audio items trying to be THERE.
I know from your posts that you still have a long road and " fun"/$ " looking for THERE.
I was like you unstable but today I enjopy my stability better than ever. No VIV no Dava and the like for me.
I have to say that till today I never listened any vintage/today MM/MILOMC cartridge that truly sounds really bad but what changed through the time is that today several LPs sounds not very good and the issue is that the LPs that were or had excellent mastering job performs excellent too and if I remember was @mlavigne who posted the critical importance of mastering but not in threads where all we know the importance of the recording mastering but in a thread where a gentleman wanted to know which " characteristics " look for for high quality listen levels. I participated in that thread and if I remember you did it too but only he touched in specigic the " magig " of recording mastering. The difference in my system is not low, recordings with good mastering listened way way better something that in the past was not at today high levels.
R.