Curious Why Benz Micro Slid Into Obscurity

Is the Gullwing really just an LP-S without the wood body ?

The LP-S arrived today, and is now sitting at the end of a Series IV (which balanced it with about a centimeter of weight adjustment to spare). It's playing its first record for me, the Opus 3 Test Record 1. Going back and forth between tracks played with it and with the Kontrapunkt C is showing me a pleasant surprise: I'm hearing vocal details I hadn't heard with the Ortofon. I know Therese Juel's track very well indeed, and this is an incremental improvement. It looks like table 2 will be purely MC (LP-S, Kontapunkt C, Cadenza Mono), and when Lee at Acoustand makes me two more pods I'll have the great moving iron shootout on Table 1.

@dogberry 

Congratulations. The Benz LP and then LPS introduced me to the world of higher end MCs. The sound and tone of the LPS is just beautiful and balanced. On my system, it seemed best playback loading was 47k with an Aesthetix Io also on an SME V. 

I was very surprised to do a head to head comparison of the LP-S with the London Decca Reference. The Decca has been finally de-throned! So the LP-S is now on the SME V, and the Cadenza Mono is on the IV. I couldn't resist, and sent the Ruby 3 off to Steve Leung for conversion to mono (he does it properly and removes the vertically-sensitive coil and connects the remaining coil to both outputs). That and a new Gyger stylus for $550USD seems like a bargain. You can't tell too much from the iPhone video that Steve sends, but I think it's going to be good. Better than the Cadenza Mono? I'll find out in ten days or so.
 

Currently playing Sibelius 2nd, Tauno Hannikainen, Sinfonia of London, 1959. Sounds delightful, and definitely quieter than playing this old mono record with a stereo cartridge.