"Harder" cartridge recomendation

U picku materinu, Balkan am I not, but I do know a few tasty phrases in Serbo/Croato/Bosnian (how do you call this language after the fall of Yu?) and Bulgarian, so Nandric beware ;-)

Comming back to the subject (which is carts and not personal attacks, Nandric): the obvious canon seems SPU-SME and FR-FR.
I briefly tried simulating 3012-FR7 interaction via this great tool:

http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=36347

I get something: a peak at 7.7Hz, OK, an alert that VTF should be 3.17g instead of 2g...a bit of a mess...

I have been following this thread for a few days. My first reaction to your post, Bydlo, is that you are asking the wrong question. By starting with the EMT turntable, tonearm, and cartridge, you were bound to end up with their combined sonic signature on your music, for good or ill. (I make no judgement at all; I have never heard any of those products.) Then, by using the EAR 834 phono stage, you have stamped the sonics with the euphonic sweetness of that device. It is my second hand impression that the EMT stuff may also be a bit on the euphonic side. That may be the crux of your "problem". IMO, there is a good chance you will not get where you want to go, if you insist on the EAR 834 as your phono stage. At least I recommend try another more neutral phono stage (borrowed?) before you spend on a new cartridge. If a known more neutral phono stage does not help, then you can look farther back up the chain toward the cartridge/tonearm/turntable. Apparently you like vintage stuff. I do, too. Was there some reason you chose the SME 3012R as your second tonearm?

Hi Bydlo, your Serbo-Croation is much better then your carts understanding. BTW never thought about to test or check any cart by listening to it? Ostensive investigation
make only sense regarding the (broken) cantilevers and (wear out) styli. You may need a magnifting glass btw.
You, I assume, know that all FR-7 kinds are second hand?
Aka: 'used underwear'. Look in your Serbo-Croatian dictionary under 'fetish'.

Regards,

Lewm, perhaps I did not say it explicitly, but what I'm thinking of is to try to mix the oposites: euphonic pre with a "harder" cart. I do like 834. I want to see
what it does with a more agressive cart. If this approach is a dead end or not I do not know. I hope not.

"starting with the EMT turntable, tonearm, and cartridge, you were bound to end up with their combined sonic signature on your music"

This is exactly something I'm trying to diversify by mounting the second arm and the cart. My vision is to have 929 + TSD15sph as a sort of "romantic" combo and a second combo, more ...hmm...complex let's say. For the 2nd arm, the 930 will serve only as a table, there will be no more EMT stuff in the chain. Why 3012R? Simply by reputation, reasonable price, and an occasion to buy one in a perfect shape.

Borrowing parts...albeit living in one of world's most well known cities, I feel like I'm in a sort of a technological desert ;) What I do think of doing is to try different SUT's, e.g. Dave Slagle

It would take a truly annoying cartridge to reverse the romantic slant of the other stuff in your signal chain is perhaps a simpler way of re-stating my thesis. The most neutral cartridges I have heard are the TOTL Transfiguration cartridges, the Temper, Orpheus, Phoenix. But those are very neutral, not "hard". Great products, IMO. You might get a Phoenix within your price range, used. Don't include the Glider in your shopping list; it's not in the same class with the others, IMO. On the MM side, you might find an Acutex to your liking, also very neutral.

By the way, this can go on forever. We pitch cartridges, and you hit them out of the park, along with the advice. But that's your privilege.