Hi Sgunther,
I´ve been a very happy owner of the SHURE ULTRA 500 for 23 years, and been running my ORACLE DELPHI MKII.7 since 1996.
Vic the Magician made me a direct rim drive especially for my DELPHI using the SALVATION motor. This works brilliantly because the platter´s edge is very smooth. Vic´s experiments on idler drive over the years convinced me to try it with my TT. And I think we both just knew that it will work out fine... in the end. I´ve said farewell to belt drive, and now my ORACLE is for lifetime. Of course, I´m running the Reso-Mat as well. This combination gives fantastic sound quality with ULTRA. Especially the lack of sibilance on proper recordings is wonderful. On the other hand this combination and especially the Tomahawk wand reveal sibilance very clearly on poorly engineered/cut records. And that´s the wonder of the Tomahawk really, to distinguish good recordings from poor ones. But what else could a magician do than evolve things to the extreme ?
I also run the Audio-Technica AT20SLa utilizing a new original replacement stylus ATN20SS with beryllium cantilever/Shibata stylus. My AT20SS is the same league as the ULTRA except one thing: annoying sibilance is still there regardless higher VTF and lesser VTA.
But I´ve run it only for 35 hours, so hopefully it needs more playing to refine... We will see soon.
My third cart is the ACUTEX LPM315 III STR (long nose) but I have run it for a few hours...