Goldfinger Statement, Lyra Atlas or Ortofon Anna?

All 3 are very good. You might add the Allaerts MC2 Finish and possibly the Airtight supreme....Sorry to add more. (some might also recommend the higher end Koetsu's)

I went from a Lyra Skala (which is below the Atlas) to the Allaerts (I did this 6 months for the Atlas came out). It's pretty amazing...but low output. I have heard a friends Airtight Supreme often and it excels also at tonal colors.

Which of your previous 3 cartridges did you like best? It's really hard picking a cartridge via a forum, system matching and set up are so crucial.

I want to pick up a Atlas soon...I have loved my other Lyras..but again this just my opinion in my system...

I did not see a mention of your tonearm. I think the matching of the tonearm and cartridge might perhaps be the critical factor in determining which of these three is best in an absolute sense. However, as was written by the others, it may just come down to your personal preferences and how each cartridge interacts with the rest of your system.

Very few have actually heard the Anna yet, and I agree with Jfrech, the Air Tight Supreme could be considered along with those others. I own it and in my system, it is quite neutral, extended and detailed, but also portrays tonal color and timbre accurately, IMO.

..just wondering if you've also auditioned the Benz LPS? It deserves your attention.

Dear Audiofreakgeek, Peter, Jfrech, Peterayer and Stringreen

thanks for your kind and helpful words.

My system is:

Turntable: Versa Dynamics 2.3i (which has it own linear tracking arm)
Phonostage: Audio Research Ref Phono 2
Preamp: Audio Research Anniversary
Poweramp: VTL MB-750 Ref (maybe I will add an Audio Research Reference 250 which perhaps will better harmonize with my preamp)
Speakers: Genesis II

Phono cable: MIT Phono Ref (from 1996, 1 Meter) and Nordost Valhalla (1 Meter)
Interconnect cable: Nordost Valhalla (7 Meter)
Speaker cable: Nordost Valhalla (2.5 Meter)

Power cords: Elrod EPS-2 Sign. (2)
Power cords: Elrod EPS-3 Sign. (6)

Rack: Finite Pagode Master Reference (2)
Power conditioner: Burmester 948
RCM VPI HW-27 Typhoon

Because I live in Germany prices are a bit different here:

10.500 Euro: Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement
9.900 Euro: Lyra Atlas
5.975 Euro: Ortofon MC Anna

For the Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement I would get a very nice trade-in price of 6.500 EUR because I have a good working Insider Ref Wood.
So the Atlas is 50% more in price for me.

Because Mike Lavigne has a MC Anna I thought it is already available in US.

I can not reliable judge the Ortofon MC A90. I sold it very fast for a good price because the MC Anna just came out after I bought the A90.
The Dynavector DRT XV-1s is excellent on Classical Music in my system.

The Insider Ref Wood is a little bit thin and aggressive on massed strings (with higher modulation) in the upper midrange and lower treble.
But for Jazz the Insider is still fantastic on my system (I listen to lot of Jazz 1950-1970 like originals or Music Matters Blue Note reissues at 45rpm etc.).
May be you will smile, because my Insider is nearly 10 years old!

I never heard the Goldfinger v1 or v2 or Statement - are they very different from my Insider?

Perhabs the sonic differences are enhanced because of imperfect SRA/VTA adjustment.
I am still in love with my Versa Dynamics 2.3i turntable but the crux with SRA/VTA is this: Because my tonearm is ultra short (effective length ∼ 53 mm) changing the height of my tonearm to only 0,9 mm results is changing SRA for 1 angular degree!
So perhaps I soon should buy a USB Dino-Light Microscope (thank you Wally) to find a better SRA reference point of 92 degree before further fine tuning by ear?

I would love to hear the Airtight Supreme but it is very rare in my country.

Maybe richer sounding cartridges like Miyajima Kansui or Koetsus would perhaps better fit tonal to my system. But I am afraid that I will miss resolution because I lived so many years with these kind of cartridges.

Many many moons ago I heard a Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum when I visited Michael Kays Lyric in NYC. It was a fantastic sounding audio system with Well Tempered turntable ARC preamp, Manley 500 and Manly 300 driving Infinity betas and a full set of MIT cables. It was one of the best set-ups which I have ever heard: Tonal positively warmer. What was most impressive was not only the wonderful soundstage. Shocking good was the kind of soundspace (!), the believable body of the instruments.

With the right recording and lights shut down you could hear so much body and between the instruments nothing, no smearing. I never heard that again in my life.

Maybe it was a combination of the Koetsu, Manley amps and the fuller more organic than my Valhallas sounding MIT Cables? Not to forget top room acoustics and a perfect set-up done with great knowledge and patience by audio veteran Elliot Goldman.

(Sorry english is not my native language)

No, I haven't auditioned the Benz LPS. My friend had a Benz LP and was not so impressed, but I heard that the LPS is very different.

Any further input would be very appreciated.

Alex

You might want to consider your cabling rather than cartridge. No matter how much drive your preamp has once you go beyond 2-3 metres you are running into signal loss or attenuation of the high frequencies at least. I would suggest MIT Oracle interconnects/speaker cable, short interconnects, long speaker cable will greatly your system, particularly in terms of coherence and musicality.