I chose to go with XA after hemming and hawing with cartridge choice over a couple years, this decision included cartridges at prices up to $5k. Based on that research never saw a single dismissive review of it, many claim it competitive with just about anything. I was somewhat skeptical a $1.5K cartridge could play with much more expensive cartridges, but the consistently great reviews helped to alleviate that skepticism. I suspect efficiencies of scale may be at work here, Audio Technica relatively large company.
Anyway, I purchased XA along with Thoress phono pre and Korf headshell. Here's the crazy thing, haven't installed any of this into system since purchase of these items over a month ago, fixated on streaming experimentations at present.
Assuming one has sufficient gain, I'd go with majority opinion and get the XA over 9 and xi. Sometime very soon I will actually get to hear this is my own system!