What are the most balanced relatively neutral cartridges at each price level ?

We are such a nice group of guys. No matter how open-ended and vague is the question, some of us will earnestly try to answer it.

I don’t think this is such a vague question, but I think it may be difficult to answer, since we all hear cartridges through our systems that have certain deviations from neutrality.

At level 3, I think my Lyra Kleos is pretty neutral, but when I compare it to a CD or digital high-res version of the same album, the digital tends to have more high-frequency content (and not always in a good, more musical way), so I don’t know if that means the Kleos or my phono cables are rolled off on top or if this is an artifact of my digital system.  (I have a Denafrips Venus 15 R2R DAC, and these are said to be pretty close to analog sound, and I think it is.) There may be some limitations from my tonearm, too, the Eminent Technology ET-2, which reviewers thought had less deep bass than the SME V, which was often considered a reference tonearm back in the day.

Do you mean to tell me the SME V is not still considered a reference tonearm?  I must be seriously out of touch.  Please define what you mean by reference.

You don't compare vinyl to digital, you compare it to master tape dubs. Deck's playback head is your reference "cartridge". Best decks', of course.

Generally speaking, cartridges are very coloured, aren't they ? Added colourations, negative colourations. In this sense they are often the weakest link, no matter how pleasing the sound might be. Koetsu appears to be a fine example of it.

Lyra haters?

Kleos SL under $5k

micro detail / transients machine