Benz Wood SH vs Clearaudio Maestro Wood Cartridge

Not interested in budget gear? The high-end loves you. Seek great sound, not price. If you stay in this hobby and let price be your guide, you will miss some of the great gear. I point you to the Shure V's, which today beat many cartridges costing ten times their price. Buy a NOS unit, sealed and you will be enlightened, forever to great sound.

Dear Levchappy: I never hear that Benz cartridge but I own two of its LOMC " brothers " that I assume are better performers.

I can tell you almost fo sure that no HOMC could achieve the quality performance of your Maestro one, this cartridge can compete with some of the top LOMC cartridges.

Maybe if you want a little different " flavor " you can go for other MM/MI cartridge.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

There are lots more "old" out of production cartridges other than just Shure V-15 out there that will compete(or beat)with most of todays cartridges.Most are cheaper than what I have been seeing the V-15 V sell for lately.You should check out the thread Raul started on MM cartridges.

I can be more work to find these out of production cartridges but it's worth it.IMO

Some people may only like to use new currently made models,that's fine,easy to locate but the prices can hurt(me anyway).

I've owned the Benz 2HO in the past and currently have the Maestro Wood mounted on my Acoustic Signature Manfred Table.The Clearaudio is clearly(no pun intended) the best cartrdge that I have owned.Honorable mentions(for high output cartridges) go to the Dynavector DV-20X and the Ortofon 2x Bronze.

Hi Buconero117; I paid more for the Grado Reference Master and we prefer the Maestro Wood, even though the Maestro was more "Bugetable." I believe the real audio rip-offs are cables/interconnects; such high prices for fancy plastic braiding.

Also, if new Audio gear were made with V-Caps and Audience High Definition caps, and enough demand was made for Blackgates, the price for such components would be affordable for them to be installed in the gear. Perhaps even Blackgate caps could be back on the market. Then you'd have real high end performance and a more reasonable price.

Hi Rauliruegas; We agree, the Maestro Wood is hard to beat.

Hi Travbrow; I agree about older models; we once had a wonderful Monster Omega MC until my dealer did a poor packing job and it was broken in transit from Oracle in Quebec.

Hi Transnova; We clearly agree about the Maestro Wood. We loved the Virtuoso Wood, but my jaw dropped when we got the Maestro Wood.

Although it is a real dream cartridge, I guess I won't be so Green with envy over the Van den Hul Frog.

Thanks all for the input and please see my other threads and you might gain some insights into why my wife and I are a bit fussy when it comes to our mutual over 30 year-old hobby. Music is Life and so is Hockey.

Levchappy