Cartridges better than Colibri XGP?

This is an impossible question; any response is going to be purely subjective. And since you cannot get into someone else's head, I suggest that all you will get is a list of opinions from the probably very few of us who have ever heard a Colibri XGP variant. Furthermore, I don't think of the Colibri as a "high compliance" cartridge, but I could be wrong. It so happens that I do own a Colibri. I don't think it is an XGP type, however, but I could be wrong. So far it is the best sounding cartridge I have heard in my system. This includes a Koetsu Urushi and a top end Ortofon, among many others. On the other hand, it is rated for 1.0mV output, so it is hardly "low" in output. And it is mounted in a medium mass tonearm. There you have my opinion, for what it is worth.

Dear Pentatonia: Better than...?, this fact is dependent on the tpnearm match for a cartridge, the analog rig where it will work, whole audio system performance, your quality performanve priorities and many other factors.

I like the Colibri as other Van denHul cartridges but maybe you don't have to go in that high price " direction ". You can try what IMHO is worth to invest with: the MM/MI alternative and these are very good choice that not only are different of what you have but that outperform what you have:

http://www.elexatelier.com/bangandolufsenphono.htm
the MMC2 model.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?anlgcart&1261282177&/Soundsmith-The-Voice

http://www.lpgear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LG&Product_Code=NAGAOKAMP050&Category_Code=NAGAOKACART

or

http://www.audiophile.com.au/product_amber.html

here see " cartridges: Grado Amber. ".

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

i've owned 7 Colibri's over the last 9 years, and typically 3 at a time. there are a few different Colibri's, but i'm not exactly sure what an XGP is. i've had XGW's (wood body, gold windings), a couple of XCP's (copper windings, polycarbinite body), and an XPP (platinum windings, ploycarbonite body).

when a Colibri is at it's best; it is super explosive and detailed, very natural and with see-thru transparency. really breathtaking. unfortunately; any Colibri is also knife-edge in it's character......always borderline to being too edgy and splashy. it really needs an arm with a good amount of dampning to control the 'zingy' nature. i've heard that the Graham Phantom is a good match, there are likely others.

at this point i don't own a Colibri; but i will in the furture. i got tired of fighting the damn things. but i still miss the moments when heaven openned with the Colibri.

The Colibri is a terrific product but please proceed with great caution because the distributor, Bluebird Audio, sucks.

I dropped the line when Bluebird took over 3 months to rectify a situation involving a faulty Condor.

I'd still be selling vdH products, they are terrific, if the distributor had a clue what customer service means.

Dear Audiofeil: I never had problems like the ones you posted.

Due to that I have mounted so many tonearms/cartridges in my TT's time to time I " suffer " " bent cantilever accidents ", well four times with my Colibri and in each one the Van den HUl service was first rate, but this is my experience aand different from yours and maybe different from other people.

I agree with you the Colibri is one of the best LOMC cartridges out there, carefully tonearm match is very important here, at least with my very low weight ( 2.5grs. ) and low output ( 0.22mv ) sample.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.