Still looking for a new Moving Coil Cartridge

Neither you nor I nor most of the rest of us, regardless of experience, have the capacity to account for a zenith error; there are no readily available tools to use for that purpose. I have a feeling there soon will be, from either Wally Tools or elsewhere. And yes, no zenith error with a spherical stylus. At the CAF, the person at the Wally Tools kiosk (not JR, who was taking a break at that moment) told me they will take your cartridge, measure for zenith error (and every other possible parameter), and sell you a shim to correct for the zenith error. He showed me an example of a shim, but it didn’t make sense to me how the shim he had on hand would do the job. In any case, Wally do understand the problem it seems. Unfortunately, there current solution costs $500, which pays for a thorough assessment of the cartridge, not just the zenith shim.

With 28,500 LPs and 60 years experience, I prefer the Dynavector 20X2 L cartridge. It works great with my modified SME IV, with the Zesto Allesso SUT as well as EAR 864 and EAR 912. It is so highly valued by friends and myself because it permits us to enjoy ALL our LPs, from 1948 monos to current production. I had higher end cartridges and they made newer (post direct to disc era) LPs sound fantastic but not as good with early stereo and mono (I should purchase a mono cartridge though as that is better suited to mono 1950s LPs grooves). My best friends also own the Denon 103 in both plastic and remodeled ceramic body versions. Both great choices.

This is the indisputable truth that so many don’t want to hear or believe. I have spent somewhere north of 50K on various cartridges and have a few set up professionally by Brian Walsh (whom I can not recommend enough). The hard truth is that the exotic cartridges set up optimally will not convey audio nirvana upon your lap and ears. Yes, there are incremental improvements, but only with optimal pressings which are few and far between. The sweet spot for me is with the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze and the Benz Glider SL. I have two of each just gathering dust and I am presently wearing out my Lyra Etna SL and Van den Hul Crimson Stradivarius XGW. When they are worn out I will "revert" to the Ortofon Bronze and Glider with zero regrets.

This is just my take, I don’t claim it is right DESPITE my strong introductory proclamation. It is my truth, not yours. A very short comment on pressings-it is amazing that nothing can be assumed. I have purchased expensive boxed re-issues that were only "good" and small indy pressings that are amazing.

To place a fly into the ointment, consider this:

- Fine line contact styli have FAR greater surface contact area versus conical styli. When balanced for equal VTF, this means the fine line will be far less likely to cause groove damage. 
- A fine line contact stylus has a greater angle of attack on groove perturbations. This heightens the risk of groove damage vs conical styli but is heavily influenced by the deflection of the groove wall under the stylus. A record with higher quantities of plasticizers will deflect more and therefore be more at risk from damage from high angles of attack from the stylus. This issue has not been conclusively studied in the scientific literature, but we intend to do so starting with heavy use on lacquers.
 

My experience and my gut says that groove damage is primarily a function of tonearm horizontal forces being out of control and very secondarily by excessive VTF and dirty styli. At 33rpm and at innermost grooves only, conical styli *MIGHT* retain a small advantage but otherwise fine line styli are safer. Again, I cannot yet prove this due to lack of data on deflection/angle of attack.
 

Get your tonearm under control and you’ll have less to worry about (and sound better too!)

I agree with @lewm.

If the owner cannot set up a cartridge correctly, then they shouldn't try to set it up at all.  MicroLine, Shibata, Line Contact and similar stylus profiles are MUCH more desirable than spherical stylus.  Spherical stylus wear very fast and can do irreparable damage to records before their wear gets discovered.  That also results in a higher cost of maintenance since most MC carts require a full cartridge replacement when a stylus is shot.  

I hope my comment about using a spherical stylus because it’s safest for LPs was taken as facetious. That was the intent.