The following is a slight edit to a copy/paste from a post made by myself in late 2021.
Even though I can not recollect the nuances produced during the comparison demonstrations, the notes taken on the day, along with the follow up report to the attendees, leaves me feeling assured that the notion of the Brand being assessed, and the 'under the hood', internal parts selected to be used as an assembly has the most impact on how the Cart' is going to present.
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"Not too far back, I took part in a demi' of comparing Four Cartridges within one system, where each Cart' has been mounted on the same TT>Tonearm and Head shell Model.
Three Cart's were the same models, of which two of the Cart's had undergone rebuilds using different Spec Materials from other Cart's offered from the Brand, and one Cart' had a FGS Styli added and was recently overhauled. The Styli on these Three Cart's are a FG 80, FGS and Ogura Vital+S.
The Fourth Cart' was from the same Brand and Production era as the others in the line up, but was a production variant of the three Cart's. This Cart was also rebuilt, using parts belonging to another Model from the same Brand, which was a model that was at one time the Top of the Range model. This Cart' had a FGS Styli.
The Cart's had from recollection an approx' usage of between 50 - 200 Hours on the differing models.
After hearing the four Cart's, the Three attendees during discussion could not distinguish how much a Styli was seen to contribute to the noticeable differences in Sound Quality a Cart was able to create.
The basic assessment was that the Brands Standard Cart', was the inferior performer on the day, and the Variant Model with the New Parts within, was noticeably the one with the most attractors over all the Cart's in the Line Up.
The owner of the Variant Cart' today owns the same Model that the Cart's rebuild donor parts belonged to, and is using the Replicant 100 styli, in regular communications and listening experiences of this Cart' the owner is not feeling the need to consider the FGS as an alternative styli. "