Best Cartridge for VPI Aries orig + JMW 10.5 ?

Banjofan
The two carts you are deciding on have different sonic characteristics. Depending on your preferences, warm balanced or detail retrieval, your choice would be a lot easier.

It has come to my attention that there are some new optional "outriggers" that have become available for the JMW tonearms. Apparently, this is Harry's "fix" for helping the tonearm to handle low compliance cartridges. If you are planning on using anything below 15cu, then I'd heartily recommend the purchase and use of these outriggers on the JMW tonearms.

to cmk...when you say "warm balanced" vs. "detail retrieval" which attribute belongs to which cartridge?
(btw, my speakers (viennal accoustics) are already a bit warm since they have silk domed tweeters, so i feel a bit cautious about overdoing the "warmth" side of things.

Banjofan,
With a good phono stage, the differences between these carts are just personal preferences and are not marked differences.

Having said that, you can tune the cart to match your system's balance using VTA, tracking force, azimuth and anti-skate, so choosing either one of these carts will work.

To answer your question, I'd reckon the Helikon as being in the leaner balanced, while the Celebration as being fuller.

BTW I would tend to associate warm with more bass, rather than the tweeter's silk dome per se.

Happy spinning!

Banjofan, I also have Vienna Acoustics speakers (Strauss). I can't claim to have heard the Celebration, so I cannot directly compare. I have compared my current favorite, the Helikon, to the Benz Ruby 2 and the Cardas Heart. The Helikon provides more detail, while not being over-analytical. The Benz and the Cardas were a tad bit warm for my VA speakers. I also have a VPI table with JMW 10.5 arm. Try doing a search on the Celebration here and at AA. There isn't much information out there on it, I don't know why. FWIW, I don't think you can go wrong with the Helikon.

Regards,
John