Best cartridge for Pro-Ject 9.1

With an 8.5g tonearm, maybe you should consider the Ortofon 2M Black with a compliance of 22. With your tonearm it should have a resonance of 8.6 Hz which is in the "safe" zone.

I know it's an MM cartridge, but I think it would be a good fit.

It's also been extremely well reviewed, even by expensive LOMC phreaks.

You mean something musical but reasonably inexpensive until the Aurieges comes in?

There are several good-performing low cost phono stages these days and I'm sure other A-goners with more varied experience will chime in. The Bellari VP129 tube-driven phono stage has good buzz and it's main limitation is that it has only 29 dB of gain. If you go with a 2M Black, however, this wouldn't be a problem because the Black has rather high output even for an MM.

Another alternative is the Cambridge Audio 640P, which can accommodate a wide range of cartridges as it's switchable between MC and MM for 58db and 39 dB of gain respectively. It takes a bit of break-in to smooth out, but once it does, it has excellent clarity and detail at the price ($169) but with good speed and great musical coherency.

08-03-08: Mikeyc8
Johnny I don't mind spending a bit more either, as long as it retains its resale value until the Shindo MM comes in. Do you have any other suggestions in the $500-$700 range?

Bear in mind that I've only been back into vinyl playback for 1-1/2 years, and the only outboard stage I really have experience with is the Cambridge (plus some vintage preamps), but the Dynavector P75 mk2 is considered a very good pre at $750. If you google for it you'll find plenty of reviews, including one here at Audiogon.

If you're lucky, maybe you could find a used Graham Slee Era Gold V here. It is, however, limited to MM from about 2.5mV on up.