My sense of the Charisma is that it is more refined than the Maestro but my experience with the Maestro is limited to demos in my dealers showroom so I cannot really articulate the differences between them. It’s also been at least 3 years since I have heard a Maestro.
You might want to ping Nick at the Audio Connection. He is a real expert on turntables and cartridges and can probably tell you much more than I can. Garth at MS is also a great resource and can surely give you a detailed comparison between the two.
From personal experience I did compare the V1 Maestro to the Benz Glider and preferred the Benz, which I bought and owned for 5 years. Overall I prefer MC to MM. The Charisma struck me as a great alternative and I haven’t been tempted to use a MM for at least 20 years. I did seriously consider it, it was that good, but in the end went with the AMG Teatro MC. Again, listening is your best indicator since we all have different listening priorities and different systems, rooms, etc.
You might want to ping Nick at the Audio Connection. He is a real expert on turntables and cartridges and can probably tell you much more than I can. Garth at MS is also a great resource and can surely give you a detailed comparison between the two.
From personal experience I did compare the V1 Maestro to the Benz Glider and preferred the Benz, which I bought and owned for 5 years. Overall I prefer MC to MM. The Charisma struck me as a great alternative and I haven’t been tempted to use a MM for at least 20 years. I did seriously consider it, it was that good, but in the end went with the AMG Teatro MC. Again, listening is your best indicator since we all have different listening priorities and different systems, rooms, etc.