Cartridge for SME IV.V

My own personal analog guru has very good things to say about the SME V / Benz LP Ebony combination.

I have an SME 30 and the SME IV.vi arm with the Dynavector XV-1s that bettered a van den Hul Colibri and a Clearaudio Insider Reference by a significant margin IMHO. But, as always, this is a personal preference thing so YMMV

Thanks for the input guys - lots of useful info here. I suspect that the interconnect will be the first thing to go. I would have addressed that sooner, but the only interconnect that I have seen that I would have wanted appeared - and vanished :( - the same week I got the turntable. So if anyone has a nice deal on a Purist Audio Din to RCA phono interconnect, please feel free to let me know ;-)

Eso -- I don't know the MSRP for a Dominus phono, a Venustas is $1800. However they are both available new for the following prices:

Venustas-$1150.00
Dominus w/Ferox-$3300.00

I'm using a Venustas with my SME V / Tranny W, and the sound is quite spectacular. I'd like to hear a Dominus just to see what (if anything) I'm missing, but up til now, the Venustas is the best I've ever heard.

Dear Esoxhnrt: There are many cartridges that can mate with your SME tonearm.
One of that cartridges is the Sumiko Celebration ( you can read both Stereophile reviews on: the 20 and 30 SME TT's ).
I uese it in that configuration and is a great conbination very hard to beat, even for the XV-1 and Colibri ( that I own too ).

Fortunatelly your SME tonearm can match with several cartridges, the point here could be which are your music priorities and choose a cartridge that mates better with it.

An additional advantage with the Celebration is that is really " inexpensive ", you can try it, enjoy it and if you don't like it you couls sold it and go for the XV-1.

Yes, you have to change the phono cable: my advise is a simple one: Silver Oval from Analysis Plus. You ( like anybody ) don't have to pay thousand of dollar for a stellar performance like the Analysis Plus cables. There are many many mis-conceptions and non know-how in we customers about cables. Don't waste your money in KK dollars in cables: put your money on the software, LP's.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.