If you can swing it Mike at VPI told me my choise of Sonatta was good he may have very well told other that Dyna was the one to beat (I wouldn't havebeen bummed out I worked ina shop where all we sold was Grado so it was obvious for me).But at the time he said "If you have $500 my suggestion is to save up another $250 and get a Sumiko Blackbird".He thought that when it came to less than $1K this is where he would go-now that was three or four years ago right after it came out but the BlackBird has gotten rave reviews.Call "The Needle Dcotor" or Bes at Muisc Direct and ask bang for the buck question.I was told by a guy I trust at Red Trumpet (and others ) that for less than a grand the Shelter 501 is the one to go with at $850.But right now I have the Sonata who knows maybe I'd rather the Dyna but thought I'd just mention those.Fremer said all the Shelters had more of a "House Sound" thanother brands so maybe you could swing the 301 for same $500.
I am trying to get a whole new rig set up.I want to reduce size of my big extended Aries and go with a Scoutmaster and I think I feed one Shelter 501 on one arm tube and one Grado mono on another (where any cart can be ordered .5,1.5,or 4.5 the middle being called the VPI model because it's less likely to hum and still has less winds and sounds better then the HO model).Think it's cool that many jazz re-issuer's are coming out with mono versions like at Classic Records.All this will be fed probaly into the new PS Audio phono box (read their gain cell tech at their site and this issue of Steophile talking about in new integrateds).Might want one them eventually if this digital stuff really does sound good (ealiest Class D sucked and PS won't even use it to describe their stuff).Meanwhile I'll keep my EAR 40 watt push pull which has has served me well and will for a while longer.New PS is cool with novel volume on front plus phase and mono button up front.Capitance is easy to reach in back of small box.Alkl for $999.So we are in complteley diferent camps rig wise and maybe ther isn't the synergy between Shelter and your rig (or at least arm and compliance) as there is with my VPI.But think Dyna makes competetive product along with Grado,Shelter,and Clearaudio for less than a Kilo buck.Wish I knew if there more to add to list such as the cheaper Lyra products).Maybe you can get to a dealer and shoot them out (or others) and let us know if original advice you got was best way to go.
Best of luck
Chazzbo
