Miyajima Shilabe with Shindo preamp ?

Fjn04, my experiences with the Shindo VR and Petrvs preamplifiers were the same as your experiences. In my experience, I have also found that the Shindo preamplifiers do integrate better with an external SUT over the internal Shindo selected SUT.

I was perplexed why this event was additionally in the forefront when utilizing the Shindo designed SPU with the Shindo selected internal SUT. I would have thought that they would have been optimized to work better together than a third-party SUT...any thoughts?

Thanks for getting back - the other two cartridges on my short list are both Dynavectors - the 1-S and the 1-T, the latter at almost twice the price of the former. Are we talking diminishing returns at this point ? Do you know them ?My current cartridge, in a TriPlanar, is the Lyra Titan, which I find too 'hot'. I'm a freak for analog cellos, violins, sopranos and mezzos. And I do reserve solo keyboard for the digital realm. To my ears, no one has engineered a grand piano sound like ECM.

Perhaps I should wait for your tonearm thread but I'll interject here. I just bought a Kansui. I haven't mounted it yet but probably will this week. I'll try it first in my Clearaudio Universal and eventually in my other arms, including an SME M2-12R. I'm a big fan of the SME, although I've only used it for SPUs so far. If you buy one, consider picking up an aftermarket headshell or two because the stock SME isn't slotted, which makes cartridge alignment a little trickier if you use an arc protractor like a MintLP. FWIW, I considered the Ortofon but it has an odd geometry and the Schick but it doesn't allow bias adjustment. Some don't care about bias but I do. And the thumbwheel VTA adjuster on the SME is very useful. It's a very good-sounding arm and easy to use.

I'm a freak for analog cellos, violins, sopranos and mezzos.

Best cello I heard from any cartridge is using an Allaerts cartridge. The MC1B already has an amazing presence, richness, and scale when playing cello. I run mine with the A23 step-up into a Shindo Monbrison.

As for the Shilabe, I would consider a Schroeder as well, even it takes some finetuning skills.

Thanks for all your opinions so far. I really do have to try the Shilabe on the Vector 3, although I have no reason to think the combo will have good synergy. The SME M2 12-R or the Schick would both seem like great choices to maximize the potential of the Shilabe. The only TT I have thought about so far is a Girard 301/401. Are there any opinions on which TT may be best w/ either of these 12" arms. So much for keeping the cart ahead of the horse.