Top 5 favorite MM cartridges currently available

'Everything you can do I can do better'(grin).
The assumption is that all Clearaudio MM carts share the
same 'generator' and differ only qua cantilever/stylus
combo. So one can 'do better' by visiting the German ebay
and buy any of those Clearadio's for cheap (from 50 Euro on but look for the wood corpus). Then ask the seller to post the cart direct to Axel who will provide the cantilever/stylus combo as described by Halcro. The (damn)foreigners need not to pay our (Europe) VAT tax which is just incresed from 18% to 22%. Axel was very clear about this 'prerogative' for those outside of the EU.

Regards,

Triode&Lew, The Clearaudio series MM carts differ only qua
cantilever /styli and corpus (wood + metal kind). According
to Raul Peter Ledermann told him that the Virtuoso stylus was 'mediocre'. I assume that Raul retipped his Virtuoso by Peter. When we discussed cantilevers in the MM thread J. Carr mentioned the difference between aluminum cantilevers versus the 'exotic kind' (boron, ruby,etc). In the 'éxotic' kind the stylus must be glued while in aluminum they can be pressure fitted. This way there is a direct connection between the stylus and the cantilever. That is btw why I asked Axel to 'upgrade' my Virtuoso with
the nude line stylus pressure fitted in a(tapered) aluminum cantilever. We of course assume that cantilevers and styli do matter. Halcro also ordered the same upgrade for his Virtuoso black by Axel and was 'euphoric' about the result. Not sure however how much importance one should attribute to his opinion because his 'euphoria' reg. the
MM as well as LOMC's carts seems to have no bondaries.

Regards,

Dear Henry, you made the comparison with blonds, brunettes,
red-haired,etc., to disclaim my own illusion about the 'fidelity'. There was some confusion in the MM thread between 'euphonic' and 'euphoric' but I thought that someone who is euphoric about the blonds, the brunettes,etc., and used this metaphor to explain his
preferences reg. the carts , should have more 'euphoric'
feelings reg. the carts then about just one or two. There
is this old conception about 'quantity' and 'quality'
but if both can be measured the (pre) assumed difference
does not exist. Kant and Hegel never got this right because
they thought that those are different 'animals'. The problem is/was with 'conceptions'. Those are not statements which can be true or false but only senseless
or useful dependent on our understanding or insight.
Btw I always read your post with indepted care.

Regards,