Ortofon Anna or Transfuration Proteus?

Thank you for your suggestions on Lyra Atlas. I would really like to have it but it's too expensive for me. :-(

I have heard both the Ortofon Anna and Transfiguration Proteus. Both are excellent cartridges. Here is my take on them and the Lyra Atlas (which I have also heard extensively - my friend owns the cart):

Ortofon Anna - very smooth cartridge - solid bass, very detailed yet smooth highs, and by my ear, somewhat sterile midrange. Dynamics also lacking a bit for carts in this price range.

Transfiguration Proteus - different than the old transfigs which were on the 'romantic' side of voicing, this new transfig is super fast, great PRAT, solid bass, and very good highs although not quite as good as the Anna. Midrange can also be a bit thin.

Lyra Atlas - great detail, great bass, dynamic as a cart can be, but also more sterile sounding than the other two above by my ears. transparency great, speakers disappear, but not a very 'musical' cart, but very accurate. Somewhat unforgiving.

If I had to pick between the Anna and the Proteus, I would probably pick the Anna, but remember the Anna is $1,000 less expensive than the Atlas, but $2,000 more expensive than the Proteus.

A cart you haven't mentioned in this price range is a Dynavector XV-1s. It retails for less than the Proteus, yet by my listening tastes and ears, outperforms both the Anna, Proteus and in several ways, the Atlas too.

The XV-1s is very musical and is 'solid' in all areas - imaging, detail, bass, smooth highs and a liquid midrange. If the above carts have some categories where they rate 10/10 in some and 5-6/10 in others, the XV-1s rates 9/10 in just about everything. It is definitely a cart you should consider in your cartridge quest.

I am somewhat wary of generalisations which rank audio components given the infinite variables involved and this is particularly true for a phono cartridge . For example , how many analog aficionados can truly claim that their tone arm wire is optimally burnt in given the small mV that a cart generates. Add to this , cart alignment, loading, TT speed stability, isolation, VTF and how it's measured, VTA and the list is pretty long if you get my drift. I can be pretty confident about some of these issues in the context of my own system but I am not sure about any other system. YMMV.
Sure anyone serious about this hobby can judge good sound but can you with some modesty pinpoint the causes for poor performance and identify the components responsible. IMHO , if someone characterizes a cart as sterile while the majority of ownership experience points the other way, I would not be swayed by the minority experience.
Just my 2 bits.
Disclaimer: Atlas owner

Easy enough to burn in tonearm wire. Just get 2 make RCA jacks. Solder some solid core copper wire to them of a sufficient gauge to fit into yout cartridge clips. Plug those RCA jacks into the back of your CD player, the new solid core wire into the tonearm clips, and the TT tonearm interconnect into an AUX slot on your preamp (not into the phono stage).

Put your CD player on repeat for a week, and you will have burnt in your TT tonearm cable and interconnect far better than you will ever achieve by playing records.

Pradeep - point well taken and absolutely accurate. Much is system dependent, but with analog not only that, but set up dependent too. I have heard the Atlas three times - twice it sounded a little lean and sterile to me. That was on an SME table in an all tube system and another with a Feikert Blackbird table and solid state. I also heard the Atlas on an all ARC system with a Brinkmann table and it sounded very different and more liquid. Overall, I felt it might lean toward the 'more detail - less liquidity' side of the fence in most, but not all systems. I'm confident it was set up properly on the SME table (I set it up!) but who knows on the other two tables.

But again, that was in three different rooms, in three different systems at three different times. The best thing people can obviously do is go out there and make time to listen when contemplating a big purchase. We all hear a bit different and lots a variables are involved.