DRT XV1s Vs Orpheus Vs Shelter Harmony Vs 47 Labs

I agree with the above responses re: the Jubilee. The OP's rig and phono stage are worthy of a much better cartridge. I had a friend's Jubilee in our system for nearly a month, on and off (mostly off!). Not fair putting it up against our UNIverse, but I've heard far less costly cartridges that I'd put ahead of the Jubilee, at least on a TriPlanar.

...full harmonically complete sound, (not overly warm but real sounding), with a good sounstage and very good dynamics.

Of the cartridges listed, I agree the Orpheus is the clear best choice. Of the cartridges not listed, the ZYX UNIverse or Atmos should have been. ;-)

The Orpheus and the Aritight PC1 are my favorite kings of the hill.

dealer disclosure.

Ouch, the Jubilee comments hurt ;-)

Seriously though, it was probably a more reasonable cart back when I had a VPI Scoutmaster and Dynavector P-75 but I've upgraded a bit since then.

Anyway, the only reason I excluded the PC-1 was because it's about $1500 more than I can get the XV1s for and I was trying to draw the line somewhere with respect to price. I've tried to search to get a general sense of how the Orpheus would sound relative to the Dynavector, (brighter / darker, more detailed / less detailed, warmer / colder, dynamics, etc...) but haven't been able to find too much.

With respect to the Universe/Atmos, again I know people like them but I haven't heard too many people with my table using them. I know that's not the be all and end all but matching should be cosidered I suppose. Also, I thought they were about a zillion dollars, (OK a bit of exaggeration maybe only half a zillion).

Price wise, I'd like to stick close to $3K and obviously the lower the better, (should have maybe said that up front).

Anyway, thanks for all the info so far.

Bryan

No_regrets - yes, three reviews are on-line. The ZYX Artisan is currently in-house for review and I won't comment in detail until publication, which could late May or June. Suffice it to say it lives up to the ZYX name. Pardon my shamelessness, links are below (if this is too much of a tout, tell me and I won't do it again):
ARC PH7 Atma-Sphere MP-1 Artemis Labs PH-1

SirSpeedy - wrt Orpheus break-in I found a corner was turned at ~70 hours and another around 120hrs. From the big Mahler stuff to Fingal's Cave to Mozart Quintets with Grumiaux, the Orpheus is a superb choice. And then there is choral. The Orpheus and the Atma-Sphere MP-1 with some nice '60's Siemens 12AT7s ... no better have I heard on female vocals - from Lucia Popp and Vier Letzte Lieder to Finzi's Intimations of Immortality - from Butterfly to Abbado and Brahm's, the O is It. She drove a Plymouth Sattelite? Faster than the speed of light? She Came From Planet Claire? Yeah, it cooks.

Dougy Dougy Dougy - Air Tight PC-1, Universe, Orpheus ... at this strata, there is no best, just taste and ears. ;-)

Bryan - send me a note offline saying how you like the Stealth Hyperphono. Thanks!

Tim

Jtim,

beautifully balanced effective writing.