MY SONIC LAB Cartridges

fjn04,
  I have the MSL Ultra Eminent EX which uses a boron cantilever, so the presentation may differ slightly from the cartridge that you are considering slightly. I would say the overall character of the sound is quite neutral or what I would refer to as natural. It is not a cartridge that screams call attention to itself per se, I find it more organic and almost sonically "invisible". 

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.

You should disregard the ’observation’ about aluminum being an unworthy material for a top cartridge. The phrase ’just because’ in the comment says it all. Aluminum and boron clearly have different sonic attributes and generally speaking boron emphasizes detail retrieval more than aluminum. But this doesn’t mean one is superior over the other. Matsudaira San acknowledges the distinction but refuses to take sides and provides his customers with a choice, as mentioned. So If ’hyper detail’ is not your thing you’re probably better off choosing the aluminum cantilever, which in this case is ironically called Hyper Eminent.....

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.

"Hyper Eminent"
Looks every bit the $5k cartridge, except the aluminum cantilever. 
Yes, alloy cantilever is used in higher priced Soundsmith carts and others, but shelling out that kind of dough, I want fancy exotic sounding materials in the mix, just because.

"I'm looking for a slightly more neutral sound without  dipping in to brands that tend to hyper detail the event. I think many of us know what lines they are, so let's leave specific names out of this thread"

I can't resist suggesting AT ART1000 because of what I've heard it do. This review mentions that magic word we like-neutral
https://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/audio-technica-art1000-moving-coil-cartridge
The ART9 (user)is a step down, and it's certainly not hyper detailed.

Since you're spending that kind of dough, lots of choices.
SS Carts would also get my vote.