Much better MM cartridge than Shure V15 IV?

While the Audio Technical AT150MLX costs less than many of the carts under discussion, (currently about $325 at lpgear), it is an excellent cartridge on several fronts, quick and responsive, yet has a nice full-bodied sound.

Two things to make it work well in your rig: you should probably add a headshell weight to get a better arm weight/compliance match as the AT150MLX has a lower compliance than the V15. Second, the AT150MLX likes to see a 100-200 pF capacitive load. If your Cronus isn't configurable for that, then you need to choose some interconnects that have 100-200 (ideally 150) pF capacitance. That rules out your current Blue Jeans.

Anyway, I've been living with an AT150MLX for 3-1/2 years and still love it like I did when it first broke in. I've upgraded everything downstream a few times (including cabling) and each time revealed how much better the cartridge is than I first realized.

It's finally getting noticed in the high end press; Abso!ute Sound named it Cartridge of the Year for 2011.

Also, I get great results with this heavy butcher block cutting board, isolated from above and below. It's just an opinion at this point, but I think maple does a better job of absorbing vibrations than Corian. I have a friend with a Music Hall turntable (made in same factory as Pro-Ject) who also uses one of these with excellent results.

Since you are using Kimber Monocles and the Stirling LS3/5a's have separate bass and mid speaker terminals, what are you using for jumpers?

You have a lot of good going in your system as is. One could argue to go further up the turntable/tonearm chain, but the only weak points I see at present are the interconnects and possibly the jumpers to the treble inputs on the speakers. I have bi-wirable speakers too, and for a long time I bi-wired them, but when I upgraded to a much better single run cable (Zu Audio Libtec, now discontinued), I had to experiment with a wide range of jumpers until I finally hit gold with a matching set of Zu Ibis jumpers. Because jumpers are so short, a fresh set only takes about 15 minutes to burn in, and I found there to be very noticeable differences in midrange and treble quality. By the same token, regardless of Blue Jeans claims, you aren't going to really know what your LP front end is dishing out through a $34 pair of interconnects.

Your quest for more upper octave smoothness and midrange transparency--given the quality of your system overall--indicates a need for better cabling. Check into a pair of Kimber Heroes at least, and a pair of Kimber Select speaker jumpers to match the resolution and quality of your Monocles.

12-18-11: Sumaato
Johnny, The Kimber Monocles were such a surprise to me in terms of what cabling can yield...well worth the investment. so your suggestion to get better interconnects is excellent, particularly establishing the capacitance values to match the cartridge. I'll have to try and find the Pro-ject specs for their tonearm cable capacitance, to complete the picture. I have never considered these values closely, so it's a direction to follow.

Since you have Monocle XL speaker cables, pick equivalent quality phono or interconnects from Kimber's Select line.

I'm using pure silver 10 gauge wire as jumpers between bi-wire terminals. What do you think?

First replace the Blue Jeans with some interconnects commensurate with your speaker cables. Give them 100 hours or so to burn in. Then see how things sound. This may fix it. My hunch is that the Blue Jeans is adding grain and subtracting transparency and your silver jumpers are spotlighting that. If you replace the interconnects you may find that the silver jumpers are just fine. If you find you still need a little more warmth or fullness, try swapping in some Kimber Select jumpers for the silver ones.

The Kimber Select interconnects will probably take care of it.