opinions on favorite cartridge

I guess its hard to get an answer to my original question, and as usual, people think they need to answer questions not asked, but I will try to address those concerns.

First, I have all these different options because I was able to purchase them at extremely good prices, used of course. In some cases, I was the only bidder, at a very low price, and didnt expect to win, but I did. I doubt that my entire investment in cartridges would equal the price of a Titan at retail.

While some of you may have good memory retention for the sound of components, I guess I dont. If I started to test each combination I own, by the time I got to the last one I would have no idea what the first one sounded like. And sometimes I just like the sound of a combination for no particular reason other than I like it. So I use that combination for a while until I get a wild hair and try something else, or another great deal comes along.

While it may seem that I collect, rather than enjoy, I can assure you I have spent much more on vinyl than I have on equipment, and have well over 5000 albums, even after getting rid of my albums back in the 80s when I bought into the CD myth. Havent bought a CD in more than 15 years. I spend a lot more of my time listening to music than I do fiddling with equipment.

That said, I do appreciate the workmanship involved in building a turntable, and the craft involved in cartridges and tonearms. You will notice from my system description that many of my items are vintage and were state of the art when they were first released. Not having the ability to listen to higher end equipment locally, I have no way of knowing how much difference any upgrade would provide.

I dont need someone to tell me what I want to listen to. I was just asking for opinions from the wide range of members here who may have more experience with these cartridges than I do. I have enjoyed each and every one of the cartridges listed at one time or another.

I do agree that I should probably trim down my collection, but I'm not in any hurry to do so. I am building a 3 arm DIY table just for fun and maybe testing purposes. One of the arms will be a Sumiko MMT with removeable headshell for quicker comparisons. The other two arms will be a Roksan Tabriz, Rega RB300, Grace 704 or Linn Ittok.

I am interested in the comments regarding upgrading the phono stage before upgrading a cartridge. I do find the SimAudio and GCPH to be much better than anything I used before, and the GCPH with remote runs straight into my amp which I like, along with its many loading options. There arent many phono preamps that have a volume control, easy loading options and a remote.

So, any more thoughts on my original question?

You are right. I wish I had your problem. All of your equipment is very good and only you can decide which cartridge tonearm combo sounds best to u. Trust your ears because noone else has your identical taste in music.

I would with no problem use top of the line cartridges with GPCH phonostage. It's realy a winner in this business.

So just to get this straight - you are asking for people to tell you which cartridge people like best from the list of cartridges you own. There are two major flaws with this question -

* Listener preference and bias will vary wildly and may or may not be anywhere near your own preferences

* An analog system is the sum of its parts. Cartridge, arm, table, phono, and setup. Change one of these variables, and the whole deal is off.

Most of the people on the forum have the goal of assembling a system with the highest possible audio potential. (with respect to their own biases). If you have this goal, then you need to do 2 things:

1. Upgrade your phono stage. I've owned the PS Audio and borrowed the Sim. The Sim is better than the PS in my experience. The phono stage is arguably the most important in the analog system, and you have a large gap in potential here between what you have and higher end, better sounding phonos.

2. Sell all your mid tier cartridges, and buy 1 or 2 really nice ones. The 309 is a good arm and gives you quite a bit of flexibility. If it were me, I might consider a Lyra Delos, Dynavector XX2, or the best benz or Ortofon I could get for $2k or so.

If, on the other hand, you just like to tweak and play around with stuff - then keep up what you're doing

Second the Lyra Delos