Shelter 501 versus Soundsmith Zephr ?

I have owned and used both the Shelter 501-II and Soundsmith SMMC1 cartridges your rig - Aries 1 and JMW10 arm. I was not fond of the 501-II stereo cartridge.JMW arm combination. It's not so much that it was bad, as there were other combinations that were so much better IMHO.

It's hard to compare the Soundsmith to the Shelter (or other LOMC carts) because of the difference in design and the additional circuitry in the chain (SUT in my case). Needless to say, I think that the SMMC1 is one of (if not the) best bargain in a new cartridge. Is it the best cartridge I have ever owned or tried? No, but it gets you very close to the ultimate, and having a more expensive cartridge requires you (or at least, me) to improve everything else in the chain to the point of economic unfeasability.

Knowing what I know now, if I still owned the Aries 1 I would order a pair of Soundsmith Zephyr cartridges; one for stereo and one for mono, and be done with it. But that's if it were me.

I ordered an SMMC1 and it is due to arrive at my house in 2 days from today on May 6th so after I set it up and play it for a number of hours I will give you my initial impressions. I am looking forward to it. I will be curious how this design sounds different from an MC cartrdige like the 501. I grew up on a shure cartridge used on a Pioneer PL 12-D turntable when I was a teenager. There was plenty of bass in that set up. Basie :)

Robob,
I did not talk with soundsmith but instead went thru a dealer.

I now have 10 hours on the Soundsmith SMMCI as of may 12 2011 and the cartridge does not sound good so far. I will give it time to break in. very erratic, weird sound anomolies and generally lousey sound.

It turns out that the sound anomolies I had caused to happen by not knowing how to properly load my adjustable phono stage. Just checked with the maker of the preamp/phono stage and they told me how to properly load it at 47K and now the cartridge sounds great, is really starting to open up, large images, a lot of presence, and musically engaging. Definitely worth trying out a sound smith cartridge if you have not already done so ! This is an SMMC1 Sound Smith cartridge, just to clarify. I have heard that the Zephr is an even better match with the VPI tonearms. No complaints here.