Anyone contrast Transfiguration with Allaerts?

Larry, Thanks so much for your insights. My currrent is a Benz Glider II low which I consider to be very neutral, nice balance top to bottom, musical and grainless although more shallow and not as resolving as top shelf carts.
I sit VERY close to my speakers which are highly modded Scientific Fidelity Teslas so have to be careful about "forward" or bright. The Glider has been great. Just looking to "evolve" without doing the classic neurotic audiophile thing by ruining a great synergistic sound by "improving" a component. Would you consider the Phoenix to not "push you back" with midrange but rather allow "listening into the depth".....or not?

To me, the Benz Glider is a little bit on the brighter side of the spectrum, and is a touch "rough" and edgy sounding, though I like the speed and detail. If it is neutral sounding to you, then you have a pretty wide range of cartridges that will sound good in your system (the thing that typically annoys listeners the most is when a cartridge sounds edgy and lean). The Allaerts, Transfigurations and Ortofon PW are more forgiving in this regard than the Benz Glider. All of the cartridges I mention will deliver, particularly with classical music, the full harmonic complexity and "density" of the music while not sounding sluggish and overly warm.

Of course, how a cartridge will perform in your system depends a lot on specific component interactions. That is hard to predict. My general impression, on hearing the Transfiguration Orpheus and Phoenix in several systems is that these are forgiving cartridge that work well in a wide range of systems. The lower output Allaerts could be touchy when it comes to having enough gain. The Allaerts were also very touchy when it comes to loading. The Ortofon PW I only heard in one system (though two different tables). My own experience with Lyra cartridges is that they are not terribly sensitive to loading, but very sensitive when it comes to getting VTA set correctly.

My electronics are definitely up to the task of handling a "higher end" cartridge.
The preamp is a $5k custom designed all tube unit with "tele's", Mullards and other very old nos. The power amp is a class A triode 300B push pull that is really quite extraordinary. Arm is a Moerch DP6 on a Merrill Heriloom. I believe the Glider works because it is matching the built in Jensen 347 step-up trannie perfectly as well as the arm. I have had a high output Glider sounding like you have experienced but switching to a low is REALLY very good now and my system is very neutral. Sitting as close as I do, brightness would drive me crazy. I have tried an Allaerts MC1B and it was as superb as has been noted except for a degree of thinness in the midbass/lower mids. I think that my step-up at 80 ohms is suspect as others have actually reported that 40 ohms is perfect in a step-up although 100 ohms for active is spec. My armtube is also suspect as a heavier tube has been recommended. Do any of you have recommendations on step-up trannie impedance for the MC1B?

Dear Ebush: As I say system dependent. In my experience the near field sit helps a little but not to much about ( the Glider performance ), other side I prefer the quality cartridge performance with out step-up transformers.

Of course that what you like are the whole " colorations " of your system in the same way that I like mine.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.