The greatest MM and MI cartridges ....

Yes, Acman3 yet one must approach the quest for ancient MM/MI with a caveat as locating the cartridge is just half of the fun. In some instances the stylus may be unobtainium and this brings us to perhaps the start of a new thread with a much needed list of current present day desireable MM/MI that are currently available, yet destined to become survivors and give the Pied Piper high priced LOMC a run for their money right of off the end of the abyss.

Hi Tubed1, You are right. 'just half of the fun' is, alas,
not a 'suficient condition' to stay away from the carts
for which any resonable chance to get the (original) stylus
is so tiny. I am waiting for the stylus for my AKG P 8 ES and Stanton 881S longer than two years. Are we too greedy perheps? Or, simply put, irrational?

Regards,

Greedy no way! "greed is good" to some extent? Irrational, maybe we all are all in some way a little bit of that and a lot of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). Agreed, two years is too long. I know this waaaay off topic however I'm curious Nandric as to your source for a stylus for the 881S as it is my current "house" cartridge and I am on the brink of placing an order with LP Gear for their version of the shibata for this unit. It saddens me at $ 167.00, I just know it just won't be the same but hey it's allegedly in stock, new, a japanese shibata and sources for the real deal STANTON stylus dried up many moons ago!

How come no mention of the Pickering XSV 3000 and 5000 Series of cartridges?

I found the Sound Smith CL rebuild for the Virtuoso wood to be vastly superior to the stock version. Ive had both in my system for extended listening and never found the original aluminum cantilever romantic sounding. The retip retains the CA house sound but with greater detail and tighter bass. This is of course in my system, Im sure differences heard reflect phono pre etc. Ive owned several of the previously mentioned MM's and would say the SS virtuoso is my favorite so far although I still prefer a couple of my MC's overall.