SPU People: I love my Royal N. Which SPU will I like even better?

@edgewear , Howard Johnson's made 28 flavors but we know there is only one ice CREAM and that is vanilla. There is no accounting for bad taste otherwise.

What you are doing is making excuses for inferior equipment. If your taste leads you in that direction no one can argue with you. 

I want to close my eyes and feel as if I am in front of the actual performance with the recordings that are capable of this. This is not a crap shoot. The equipment and rooms capable of performing at this level do so because they were engineered, designed to do so. There might be multiple paths to the Absolute Sound but most paths are dead ends. Enjoyable maybe, but dead ends. I have been down several of them. 

Don't put chocolate chips in your vanilla. It screws up the texture.

There is a lot of good equipment that will produce enjoyable music. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about the absolute best performance capable with current equipment. It is unfortunate that most of us can not afford it. I know well what that feels like. For years I engineered systems in my dreams that I could not afford, but then maybe that is why I worked so hard to be able to afford them. If people would stop wasting money on silly voodoo witch magic garbage they might be able to save up better. 

It is not an illusion at all edgewear. Hearing is believing.  

Except what give me listening pleasure and what gives you listening pleasure are quite possibly two very different things. There aren’t a ton of real ice cream flavors but definitely more than one.

Did the 95 live up to your hopes for it?

I’ve also fallen for the SPU Royal N but not heard any other SPUs. I have a heavy arm with removable headshell on the way to explore further.

Nope it didn't. I'm sort of going back in time now and I'm enamored with the non SPU SL15 and the SPU-TE with the built in transformer. It's tough, once you hear the tone these cartridges produce, to enjoy to the more sterile A95. The Royal N is still closer to those vintage carts but still has the more modern dynamics. I'm in a "less is more" phase I think.

I had a Transfiguration Proteus before the Royal N and bought the Royal N because I expected it to be so different from the Proteus that I wouldn’t forever be comparing unfavourably, as I would had I gone back to my DV17D3. I ended up preferring the Royal N to the Proteus. When I eventually came to get the Proteus rebuilt I was offered an Ogura OA as originally fitted or two other profiles, one of which was a Gyger S (120/6).The Ogura would have been the sensible choice with regard to potential resale value but I opted for the Gyger on the back of what I was hearing from the similar Replicant 100 (100/5) and I can’t say I regret the choice. The Royal N has it on tone but the Gyger Proteus isn’t so far behind and has leading edge detail that the Royal N rounds off, going back will be the decider. Both dig out the emotional content from the music rather well.