$800 Cartridge Shootout and Upgrade Path

Dear Jim: I know very well your analog front end: I like it. How about the Ruby 2?. You can be on heaven.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dan ed: " You do have the right to voice your opinions but you don't have the right to have anyone respond to you "..

I agree with you.
Regards and always enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul,

I'd be glad to comment on the $5K budget. Here is the original post I made:

"Raul

Whether you're correct or others are correct, it feels like you're speaking from an ideal sense, not a practical sense. I see a real life issue I don't think you can solve with your reasoning; I don't think your logic can work for folks woking on a budget up to $5K (and probably a much higher budget). A huge percentage of the folks here are on a budget & are trying to achieve the best possible music from a table, arm, cartridge, preamp, rack, interconnects, cleaining machine, and accessories, within a reasonable budget. It's tough to apply your "logic/argument" in this thread, I wouldn't have a chance do it within my budget."

You gave your responses as:

"Dear Dsiggia:".... see a real life issue I don't think you can solve with your reasoning; I don't think your logic can work for folks working on a budget up to $5K...".

Here are some examples of analog rig ( around $5K ) that you can blend according with what you want to hear:

Cartridges: Van den Hul: MC ONE SPECIAL,
Ortofon....: Kontrapunkt b.
Allaerts...: MC1ECO
Benz Micro.: M2
Clearaudio.: Victory
Lyra.......: Argo
Sumiko.....: Celebration
Transfiguration: Spirit MK3
Dynavector.: D172 MKII.

Tonearms: MOERCH: DP 6 or UP 4 ( both has interchangeable arm wands with different effective mass, so you can blend with any of those cartridges. )

Turntables: Transrotor: Atlantis.
Acoustic Signature: Final Tool.
Avid: Volvere.
Nottinngham: Space.
Roksan: Xerxes.
Thorens: 850 BC.
Wilson benesch: Circle.
Basis: 2001 Signature.
VPI: Scoutmaster.

Any of these combinations beats your analog system for a wide margin ( btw, hands down many of the anolog systems of the persons on this thread. ). Try it.
Regards and always enjoy the music.
Raul."

My response is:
You failed to see the $5K wasn't just the table, arm, cartridge. What happened to the phono preamp, cleaning machine, accessories, etc? It didn't seem worth it at the time to respond - you blew the budget. Enough is enough....

Hi Artar1, at $2400 for the Illustrious have you ruled out a Schroeder Model 2? They are the same price. Just curious.

Shop around for the Illustrious. It can be had much cheaper than $2400.