Much better MM cartridge than Shure V15 IV?

Johnny, The Kimber Monocles were such a surprise to me in terms of what cabling can yield...well worth the investment. so your suggestion to get better interconnects is excellent, particularly establishing the capacitance values to match the cartridge. I'll have to try and find the Pro-ject specs for their tonearm cable capacitance, to complete the picture. I have never considered these values closely, so it's a direction to follow.

I'm using pure silver 10 gauge wire as jumpers between bi-wire terminals. What do you think?

With all these suggestions, I'm going to need some me-time to investigate all of them. Sounds good to me.

Also...if u value speed and transparency...nordost cabling really has few competitors in this regard...one of the few cables that yields immediate rewards...some have claimed its bass shy...I would claim it doesn't exaggerate bass

12-18-11: Sumaato
Johnny, The Kimber Monocles were such a surprise to me in terms of what cabling can yield...well worth the investment. so your suggestion to get better interconnects is excellent, particularly establishing the capacitance values to match the cartridge. I'll have to try and find the Pro-ject specs for their tonearm cable capacitance, to complete the picture. I have never considered these values closely, so it's a direction to follow.

Since you have Monocle XL speaker cables, pick equivalent quality phono or interconnects from Kimber's Select line.

I'm using pure silver 10 gauge wire as jumpers between bi-wire terminals. What do you think?

First replace the Blue Jeans with some interconnects commensurate with your speaker cables. Give them 100 hours or so to burn in. Then see how things sound. This may fix it. My hunch is that the Blue Jeans is adding grain and subtracting transparency and your silver jumpers are spotlighting that. If you replace the interconnects you may find that the silver jumpers are just fine. If you find you still need a little more warmth or fullness, try swapping in some Kimber Select jumpers for the silver ones.

The Kimber Select interconnects will probably take care of it.

if you are are going to bother at all with a Stanton 881, look for the 881s and not the mark II - it is constructed much better w/ nude diamond and accurate azimuth (usually).

Yes, the interconnect will be first purchase I think. It may have an important effect on bass too, as may a new butcher block support for the table.

I really like the idea of increasing synergy rather than re-purchasing major components at a higher price level. We know that is an endless story.

Will look into the Stanton, as per your directions.