MY SONIC LAB Cartridges

Thanks table jockey...Nice review. Not sure if I agree with this statement within the review though: "High end cartridges often end up being super refined, polished and tonally charming at the expense of transparency and immediacy." Do you think the Boron they use in the ART 1000 is a more exotic material over an Aluminum (alloy) cantilever. Interesting stuff....MSL uses what they cal Duraluminum on three of five of their cartridges...the $4500, $5500, and $9000 models. Then the Ultra Eminent at $7000 uses Boron, along w/ their flagship $11K model.

Edgewear said:
Matsudaira San’s designs definitely fall in the ’neutral’ camp, for whatever that term is worth. This often comes together with extreme detail retrieval, but the emphasis - if any - with MSL cartridges seems more on micro and macro dynamics than details for their own sake. This may be the reason these cartridges are usually described as being very lively, but sometimes also as being somewhat ’uneventful’: nothing sticks out, nothing draws attention to itself. In other words - uh - neutral.

Very interesting! this sounds like a very quiet in the grooves cartridge, that is perhaps more balanced than some of the hyper detailed offerings out there. All great info here...off to work...back later. Thanks to all so far!!!

Thanks to all for the great info, and also the cool info on the cartridge shootout from Jperry.... Just a short rewind, and I never once thought about Boron, Aluminum, Sapphire, or Cactus. It can't hurt to pay a bit of attention to this. It's interesting that with the EMT line, their entry level (Tsd and HSD) series use Aluminum, their JSD (5/6) series use BORON, and the Lime, Pure Black (and PB V/M) series use Sapphire. I think at one stage of this wicked game, having a bit of variety goes a long way. And I think at the moment, without being fully aware, I'm shopping for two cartridges. I can't bring myself to dive in to a $10K (+/-) reference cartridge. So my eventual landing would be to have 2 really nice $5K cartridges. Being that I have the EMT Tsd75, a heck of a $2K cart itself... I think the change in sonic flavor will be next. Then, perhaps a higher EMT, or some unknown contender, will follow for my next turn. 

The EMT's are very good, and often overlooked. I would say the same is true with MSL, though I've yet to hear one. I think there is something with the Alnico magnet that gives a forceful drive to the proceedings which works well with Shindo. The way my TSD 75 has performed makes going a different direction feel like quite the venture. 
In fact, there is a fair chance I may cave and go with EMT again. Their new series (Noble ?) is supposed to be mega bucks, so I would likely go pure black or Lime.The EMT is not considered to be a soundstage champ, but they offer a very pleasurable listen. 

2/2 Oops...thought I had chimed back in to say I bought the Hyper, and realized I never did. I bought the Hyper. (-:

I've heard the Ultra EX as well. I think it is different enough from the Hyper, that one may like one or the other. But I don't know if one can come to a foregone conclusion that one is better than the other. I could have been happy with either. 

I didn’t pay much attention to break in. It sounded good right away. As expected, It didn’t get on well with my high impedance A23 Homage step up. It sounds great with my Dave Slagle/Emia SL (super low) impedance step up. I went with the copper version. It doesn’t have the resolution of the Ultra Eminent which I listened to, but for my preferences, I think it was the right move. The Hyper has more weight and body than the Ultra in my setup.