Andrew, and/or Doug, please fill us all in on the cartridge comparisons. Make sure Paul is there, I trust his ears! Doug's ears I'm not so sure about. Just kidding, Doug! I don't know if you've heard Doug's system before. If not I can safely say that you guys will have no trouble picking up on the differences.
Sorry to drift OT just a bit, but what Mark described with the Venustas sounds exactly what I hear from that model IC and speaker cable before break-in. Albert warned me that I'd probably mumble dirty things about these cables for the first 100 hours or so. After that they really start to mellow and blossom.