SPU People: I love my Royal N. Which SPU will I like even better?

@mijostyn I’m aware Replicant 100 is considered to be more ‘advanced’ than Shibata, but we must assume Ortofon selected this profile for a reason in their ‘statement’ SPU Century. Of course they could just as easily have picked the highest grade Replicant instead. Perhaps use of the Replicant combined with the other modernised design elements of the Century would have put it outside the desired SPU sonic spectrum. 

Actually I didn’t suggest to go look for a more modern approach with an advanced stylus profile for high resolution. That’s not what the SPU is about. If that’s what the OP is after, there are other and much better alternatives, both from Ortofon and others (as you mentioned). 
 

It depends on what you’re after. The Royal is one of the more ‘modern’ sounding SPU’s, using an advanced stylus profile (Gyger Replicant 100). If you want to pursue this modern sound (in terms of detail retrieval, soundstaging, etc.) the Royal is probably your best bet in the current lineup. Perhaps the 100th Anniversary SPU (with Shibata tip) goes beyond this, but I haven’t heard it.

You have to be aware there are also folks who are devoted to the ‘old’ SPU sound, represented by the SPU Classic in the current line-up. This has a spherical tip that limits frequently range and detail retrieval, but offers a sonic presentation that some people adore.

Most of the other SPU’s are somewhere between this old (Classic) and modern (Royal) approach, using an elliptical stylus and different coil wires and suspension designs. In my opinion the earlier Anniversary models (A85, A90 and A95) offer the best of both these worlds. They were limited series and are long deleted, so only available on the used market. This obviously has a certain risk, but Ortofon does offer complete rebuilds for these models, at a price.

Perhaps it helps to give some idea of how these Anniversary models sit inside the SPU sonic spectrum. The A85 is the most ‘classic’ with a very ‘ballsy’ presentation. It has a higher output than most other SPU’s, which could be a welcome feature in some systems. Actually, the SPU Synergy in the current line up is based on the A85. A similar sonic presentation, but without the very handsome lacquered beechwood body. The SPU A90 and A95 feature some of the innovations from the ‘normal’ A90 and A95 counterparts, including laser ‘printed’ bodies in stainless steel and titanium. These are more ‘modern’ sounding systems, yet without sacrificing the SPU character. My personal favourite of these three is the A90. It goes without saying that all SPU’s sound best with an appropriate step up transformer, the choice of which will greatly determine the final results. Enjoy the ride!

@dhcod the A95 is a very musical cartridge and I’m sure you will enjoy it. The sound balance can be further tailored to your taste by the choice of amplification. As said, all SPU’s like SUT’s. The A95 has silver plated copper coils, so the choice of a silver wired SUT might push the sound too far to the brighter side of life. A copper wired SUT would probably be your best option.

@mijostyn I think the idea of aiming for the ‘best’ performance is an illusion. Different strokes to different folks. We simply can’t escape our own, subjective opinion. There are different camps of all sorts, tube versus solid state, analog vs digital, horn vs dipole, etc. In a perfect world these approaches to the ‘absolute sound’ (whatever that means) should happily coexist, but of course that’s not the world we live in. So on forums like this people keep debating this until kingdom come.

The same goes for MC cartridges. If you want to hear everything that went on during the recording process, you inevitably will be attracted to the ‘modern’ camp and choose a cartridge offering the highest possible resolution. This will require the use of advanced stylus profiles as well as other design choices to maximise tracking, minimise distortion, resonances, etc. It will extract the maximum amount of information from the recording if that’s what you’re after. When I’m in the mood for this I would choose something like a Colibri, incidentally a 30+ year ‘old’ design that hasn’t really changed all that much.

However, if you want to get emotionally drawn into the music this is not necessarily the only or even the ‘best’ approach. Some of the musically most rewarding cartridges are not highest resolution at all. Some SPU’s, the FR-7f(z) and Miyabi’s are definitely not the last word in detail retrieval or dissolving spacial cues, but they offer the greatest emotional involvement and musical enjoyment. This ‘certain something’ is very hard to describe or explain, but very easy to hear.