Thinking about switching cartridges.

@jasonbourne71 is right. That is a sideways move. Save longer and get something like a Soundsmith Sussurro or Ortofon Windfeld Ti.  

@rauliruegas I know all about young's modulus, but there is more at play such as cantilever mass and dimensions. A ruby cantilever that has a larger diameter or is shorter can be stiffer than a Boron or even diamond cantilever. For identical dimensions you are correct. 

The micro ridge stylus on the Hyperion is definitely not the usual Namiki. Look at the AP photograph. I'll ask Peter who is making it.

@retipper Hi Peter, Mike here. Who is making the stylus for the Hyperion MR? The cartridge is certainly up there with the very best. I need to listen more to be specific.

@rauliruegas 

The Red is a fine cartridge for the money. The Aphelion Is just as good if not quite the value. The Windfeld Ti is a marvelously neutral cartridge and a great tracker with a beautifully cut and polished stylus. It may not have quite the detail of the MC Diamond or Verismo. The upper series Soundsmiths are the best tracking cartridges I have ever used and the OCL stylus and ruby cantilever are a great combination. The stylus is easily of the quality you would find on any $10,000 cartridge. 

For those that are unaware. Styluses come is a wide variety of quality, The very best cartridges have specifically selected stylus/cantilever assemblies. The poorer examples of any specific combination are handed down to the less expensive cartridges. The number of inclusions in the diamond, the shape, the polish and the precision of the mount are all factors subject to variability. Most people have no idea what their stylus looks like. Humans being what they are are prone to taking advantage of situations like this. They would argue this allows them to get advanced stylus shapes into less expensive cartridges. I would rather a well polished elliptical than a jagged line contact. I did not know this until I started looking at styluses under high power. I am not saying that all companies do this and I did not say which ones do. A microscope will answer that question. If you would like to view some of my recent pictures go here 

@rauliruegas I never said you can not replace just the stylus tip of some cartridges. Some manufacturers like Soundsmith mount the stylus themselves. I also think the RP 10 is a great table and arm as long as you put it on an isolation platform. It seems no matter what I say you make hash out of it. There are always exceptions to every generalization.  

@tomic601 I said the Red is a fine cartridge. As I have noted before I do not like the cheaper Hanas below the Blue. In that price range I think people are better off with high output cartridges and phono stages. You get a much better signal to noise ratio. It does not matter how good a cartridge performs if you have a lot of hiss behind it. Of course there is a lot more to cartridge performance than the stylus, I never said there was not. 

The precious part of any analog set up is the record. Noisy, worn out records suck. Well shaped and polished diamonds cause less record wear. The better a cartridge tracks the less likely it is to cause record wear. IMHO 60 um is unacceptable. When a stylus leaves the groove and bounces back and forth it permanently damages the groove. Can a cartridge with a spec of 60 um track most records? Yes, but a cartridge with a spec of 80 um follows the groove better which means less record wear even if the 60 um cartridge is not miss-tracking.

The Delos is a fine cartridge, but at that price point I prefer the Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC. It has better support and rebuild is much less expensive.

@tomic601 Peter calls it jitter. I call it miss-tracking.  I have heard the Red but not the Blue. They are good cartridges, but I prefer the Soundsmith, The Zephyr MIMC is 2K and a great value. Soundsmith's customer service is second to none. I can recommend it without hesitation. This is not the case for some companies, I am not familiar with Excel, but I have interacted with MSL, Ortofon, Grado, Lyra and Soundsmith. Soundsmith handily wins the customer service medal.

@rauliruegas I have looked at many styluses under a microscope. Unfortunately, my ability to take pictures is recent and I have no photos of older cartridges to demonstrate my point. I'm sure your Excel cartridge is excellent, but that is an anecdote. I have seen all sorts of defective styluses and mountings coming from very reputable companies. The quality of the diamonds and polish is very variable. It is extremely easy to see. In general the more expensive cartridges get better styluses, but "more expensive" varies from one company to another.  You can get an excellent stylus in a $600 cartridge and I have seen a defective stylus in $10,000 cartridge.  

@tomic601 Whatever happened to Chackster. I got the impression he was Russian. 

@rauliruegas Not Sussurro, Hyperion MR, the one with the cactus spine cantilever. MR stands for Micro Ridge. I do not know where Peter got this stylus from, but it has the most complex profile I have ever seen.   Check out the pictures in the link I left above. I have looked at other micro ridge styluses and they are not cut like this. Hopefully, I won't f-up any other cartridges, but I will keep Mr Long in mind. As far as cantilevers and styluses cut from one diamond I only know of the AT special edition. The MC Diamond has a separate diamond glued to the end of a diamond cantilever. It is a great cartridge, but I cannot say there is any advantage in a diamond cantilever over boron, ruby or cactus spine. Raul, I have examined enough styluses from Grado, MSL, Lyra, Ortofon, AT, Soundsmith, Koetsu, Denon , Grace and Sumiko to know they are all capable of having a bad day in any number of ways.  QC is never perfect. 

@rauliruegas I'm afraid I do not understand your last post. All I can say for sure is I now have cartridges with diamond, boron and cactus spine cantilevers and all three are fine cartridges. I can say from a tracking performance perspective the cactus spine can handle the highest groove velocities. It is also a thing of beauty. From a sonic perspective all three sound remarkably similar so It might just be an all roads lead to Rome situation. 

@lewm From a stylus perspective I do not think there is any difference between a natural and synthetic diamond both can have various levels of inclusions. I have looked at some styluses that were black with contamination and these styluses are going to wear out faster and are more likely to damage grooves. Again there is a level of quality and selection. The more expensive cartridges tend to get much cleaner styluses. I have a very inexpensive Ortofon 78 RPM cartridge. The stylus is spherical and swaged to a brass ferule (not naked). It is poorly polished and very dark. Another interesting attribute which anyone can see without a microscope is the diamonds of the more expensive cartridges are much smaller lowering the effective mass of the assembly. Less expensive cartridges using an aluminum tube for a cantilever with have the diamond pressed into the crimped end of the cantilever with a lot of excess material while the more expensive cartridges use much lighter mountings. With every cartridge made there are various levels of quality. The more expensive cartridges are more consistent but you can still get a dud. And, you had better take a lot of food down there with you:-)))