AT-OC9XMLvs AT-OC9XSH

@bpoletti  -

I have most of the AT carts plus quite a few others. The ART 9 is a nice pathway into the ART series. Pretty musical cart, nice soundstage. 

The ART 1000 is in another league. the dynamics, soundstage depth, instrument placement in the sound stage better every other LOMC I have tried. Its one heck of a hot rod LOMC cart.  

When you guys recommend ART9, which one are you talking about, the original ART9, the 9Xi, or the 9Xa?  Because if it is the original ART9, assuming one can still find it NOS, then let me put in a plug for the ART7, the low output (0.12mV) version.  Although it probably would be as hard or harder to find an NOS ART7 as to find an ART9. The ART9Xa is the low output counterpart to the 9Xi and therefore replaced the ART7. I do note that AT nearly doubled the retail prices of the 9Xa and 9Xi, compared to the original prices of the ART9 and ART7.  I bet the new models are not twice as good as their respective forebears,

Just adding to lewm's comments regarding the AT ART7

Still available

If I recall, used to retail for around $700 years ago?

I didn’t poke around enough on the site, but perhaps the ART9 1ST gen is also available for le$$?

"Reasonable" price based what you’re getting- air core LOMC’s typically at the higher level price points.

If the phono stage has sufficient gain, I would dare say the ART7 even at $1090 is a good bargain, if one is looking for a LOMC cartridge. And it's likely to outperform the OC9 variants. The price is about the same as that of a Nagaoka MP500 (high output moving iron). I happen to have one of each up and running right now in my "upstairs" system, which means I like both although I would say the MP500 is a bit "fuller"  or richer sounding, and the ART7 perhaps more detailed. These differences are nothing to write home about; they are both excellent.