Thinking about switching cartridges.

@mijostyn I do have a lot of respect for you…in a sense… like the baseball loves the bat… We do violently agree on the RP-10…. only with isolation ;-)

Of course the Delos is formidable but should be eclipsed by the $2x ¥ Red… especially considering the oft ignored economic scale Excel enjoy and frankly created by dominating the lower end MC market and …. now..VERY wisely giving those hordes of happy ML customer two destinations to upgrade toooooo. Blue n Red….. 

Also, Lederman has some thoughts on mistracking .. is analog really sampling…..

@tomic601 Peter calls it jitter. I call it miss-tracking.  I have heard the Red but not the Blue. They are good cartridges, but I prefer the Soundsmith, The Zephyr MIMC is 2K and a great value. Soundsmith's customer service is second to none. I can recommend it without hesitation. This is not the case for some companies, I am not familiar with Excel, but I have interacted with MSL, Ortofon, Grado, Lyra and Soundsmith. Soundsmith handily wins the customer service medal.

@rauliruegas I have looked at many styluses under a microscope. Unfortunately, my ability to take pictures is recent and I have no photos of older cartridges to demonstrate my point. I'm sure your Excel cartridge is excellent, but that is an anecdote. I have seen all sorts of defective styluses and mountings coming from very reputable companies. The quality of the diamonds and polish is very variable. It is extremely easy to see. In general the more expensive cartridges get better styluses, but "more expensive" varies from one company to another.  You can get an excellent stylus in a $600 cartridge and I have seen a defective stylus in $10,000 cartridge.  

My experience with Rega, limited to mid and lower TT's, suggests a lack of cartridge alignment capabilities. Not just Rega, but make sure the replacement cartridge geometry is compatible....     just saying.

Dear @mijostyn  " I'm sure your Excel cartridge is excellent, but that is an anecdote. I have seen all sorts of defective styluses and mountings coming from very reputable companies. "

First it's not an anecdote Excel quality whole levels as are not anectdotic vintage cartridges coming from still today top cartridge designers/manufacturers and I'm not ( as you ) talking only about the quality of the stylus tip but the overall very high quality level performance that many times are not only a challenge for the MSL you owned but that beats several today top LOMC/MM/MI cartrridges.

The issue is that as my Excel you don't have on hand to confirm by your self my statements but you have the opotunity that for the kind of money you paid for that MSL or the Susurro you can buy at least 8 top vintage cartridges where you don't need to " see " back in the future cartridges.

There is a gentleman here in this forum ( I can't remember his moniker and I hope he can shime about. ) that owns all vintage LOMC cartridges that came with diamond cantilever/stylus including the Sony XL 88D that as the today  top limited edition Audio Technica was the only cartridge with diamond cantilever/stylus made by one piece. I never heard this Sony great cartridge performer and " only " heard the 88 D version with diamond cantilever and stylus as separates

That owner is anecdotic but I can send/post vintage LOMC cartridges that every MUSIC lover needs to listen/experience it before die. 

Yes, jitter is mis-tracking that any cartridge can avoid it.

Btw, next time you need help to fix a cartrudge you need to experience too Joseph Long who handled : Ogura, Nagaoka, Namiki, Gyger.

R.

Of course, i am experienced in Soundsmith work. ;-) more than a few times now. 

Hopefully we have helped the OP

@rauliruegas i believe you are thinking of Chackster.   buddy of mine just got a nice Vintage Grace from him…. certainly they knew what they were doing…. ha