What are your favorite phono cartridges?

I am not saying any of these are "perfect":
Koetsu Urushi (Haven't listened to mine in about a year; others laugh at me for liking it.)
Ortofon MC7500 (a bit on the dry side)
Stanton 980LZS
Grace Ruby

I know for sure there are better ones out there. No matter how many cartridges I audition in my system, I will always be sure of that. The list is in no particular order; in fact, one could reverse the order of the list just as well. Would like to try ZYX UNI or Atmos, and some others, next.

Nandric, Saw your listing of the Phase Tech. Never heard of it. Thought it must be vintage. Went on eBay and found NOS one for sale and also that it is a current product. It looks just like an Air Tight cartridge. Can you give the background?

Also, for a suitable bribe, I won't tell anyone on the MM thread that all of your fave cartridges are MCs (except AT180, which is 3rd in your 3rd level rank).

Te Kaitora Rua and Karat are two Dynavectors about which I have always been curious.

Dover, what do you mean "out of the closet"? Because I listed my Urushi and the MC7500 as among my favorites? I never made a secret of my liking for the Urushi, even on the MM thread, and I think I mentioned the MC7500 a few times over the 4 years of the thread. Anyway, I think Raul hit the nail on the head; we like best the one(s) we own. I have no doubt there are better MCs than those two. I just need to own them.

Dear Dover, Either I misspoke or you misunderstood my comments about Koetsu Urushi. Prior to the MM/MI odyssey, I was very happy with the Urushi. It was my only cartridge for 4-5 years. I still think the midrange is to die for and that the bass is not so soft as that of lower level Koetsu's, e.g., the Rosewood and its variants. However, after sampling a wide range of cartridges on several different tonearms in the past 2-3 years, I would concede that the Urushi can be beaten. I need now to go back and listen to it again on some of my present rigs, especially the SP10 Mk3/Reed 2A, because I think those complementary pieces may lift the Urushi up a notch or two in its performance. I have yet to hear ANY cartridge that has a clearly "better" capacity to reproduce the midrange frequencies, however, but this is based on now distant memories. (You know how the fog of romance can color one's fading perceptions, over time.) I have never yet heard the Urushi via my present modified Sound Lab speakers. I also rebuilt and upgraded my amplifiers since the last audition of the Urushi. So, all bets are off at the moment.