[I.Greyhound Fan]

I'm really surprised that no one here has mentioned the mm Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood, which became famous after Bob Reina of Stereophile reviewed it back in 2002 and summed it up with this:
"Did the performance of the Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood exceed my expectations?
Yes, by a significant margin.
Can I think of any under-$1000 cartridge I've tried in my system that I would rather own than the Virtuoso Wood?
No.
Can I find at least one criticism of the Virtuoso Wood?
No. The performance of the Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood was so ear-opening that I recommend that anyone thinking of spending up to $2500 on a moving-coil cartridge consider buying the $750 Wood instead, and investing the money saved in better components elsewhere in the system."
I still have one (with maybe 200 hours on it) and I use it about once  a week.
It's very smooth, with no extremes in any area. Even after all these years, it's great at revealing textures, with breaths and bow-sounds clearly reproduced, and as such it's a wonderful combination of depth and detail (with the audiophile attributes that get us excited, yet with an overall musicality). It's great for small jazz combos and singers like Holly Cole, etc. I hope I can nurse it for many years to come.

I have a friend that runs this cartridge and loves it.  I have heard it on many occasions, and it does sound great.

[speedypenguin]

… spotted this cartoon …




… and it made me think about one of these ….





.. yet despite everything…. I could never part with my Decca Gold …

When on-form and on the right recording, I am in heaven …

For the rest of the time, I’ve my cherished Denon DL309 or AT OC9 or Koetsu Black (the latter awaiting a rebuild ) . For many different reasons and setups they’re all keepers for me …

[Circlotron]

Hello ! My first post here and joined because of this circle. Not a lot to say that you haven't heard/read/thought yourself a million times before.  I like the emojis this forum has too 

Previous carts have been the Grace F9E: with Soundsmith Elliptical Stylus Aluminum Cantilever : Very nice, ethereal, but didn't hold attention for long as more realistic sound was missed.

                                           Denon 103 : Great. Everybody knows it.
                   
                                           Lyra Delos: Still my current cart , got when first introduced. (Too expensive now!) Clean, Clear, Never harsh, and importantly for me low on surface noise. Decent tracker.

                                           Denon 304: This was a used cart given to me by a record store owner who was closing  his shop and clearing out his desk drawer as I was looking over his shoulder. "Here,d'you want this?"  I tried it once , it sounded terrible and went back in the box for a few years.  Pulled out to see if my assessment was right those years before.  I was amazed at how good it sounded, for a little while. A couple of weeks after setting up it started to sound bad again. I'd originally thought it was just a cart design that wasn't my taste. Now I'm thinking maybe it was just the suspension on it's way out. Very nice cart if true.

[Zuman]

Did I miss anyone talking about Hana cartridges?  Low output MC preferably, but I’ll take what I can get!

I'm a bit late with this response, but I have a Hana ML on a Rega P6. I'm currently running it into a Moon phono stage that feeds a Modwright KWH225i integrated, but I will have a Modwright PH 9.0XT phono stage in November that I'm anxious to hear it with. Obviously, the cartridge is just one part of a complex chain.
In my system, the ML sounds very similar to my Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood mm cart, but faster and more incisive. I've noticed a significant improvement with the sound of string basses in jazz combos; with the ML you can absolutely tell that there's a big, wooden box with strings that squeak and burp and growl and sing, not just that undefined bass "presence" you're sometimes kind of aware of somewhere in the room. The ML does seem ready to rise to the occasion with a wide range of music. This is hard to explain, but when the music is analytical, the cart sounds analytical. When the music is lush, the cart sounds lush.
One thing the ML certainly does better than my Virtuoso Wood is reproduce a realistic soundstage. Combos are both clearly placed and realistically sized.
I set the ML up with a Dr. Feickert protractor and a Hi-Fi News test record. I can't get it to track the last band on the test record, but I haven't run into a real-world situation where it seems to be a problem.

[Mohwak]

Hello Vinyl Circle People,

Here are the carts on constant rotation right now:
Grace Level II BR/MR
Grace F-14 LCOFC BR/MR
B&O MMC20CL
Astatic MF-100
Pickering XLZ7500
Stanton 980LZS
Nagaoka MP-50 Super
The Astatic cart for the longest time didn't wow me, and then I put it on a low mass tonearm and it seemed to come alive.
I love all these carts and appreciate listening to them. I also have some Garrott Optimum and P77 carts but haven't listened to them much lately.

[saab_oteur]

Two of my favorite budge cartridges are the Grado Reference Platinum (gen 1), and the Sumiko Blue Point 3 low-output. I made the mistake of sending my old Platinum back to Grado as part of their trade/discount program: they sent me a defective Timbre Master 3. I was unhappy enough with the QC at Grado that I sold the warranty-replacement they sent me, and bought the Sumiko instead, which is a steal at $500.

[soundhd]

Currently running a Simko Blackbird on a VPI Scoutmaster feeding through a Quicksilver (Hybrid) Tube/Solid state phono preamp then into the systems preamp.  Very happy with it...not "much" experience trying different cart's but sounds pretty good.....

[coolsat]

Hello Vinyl circle peeps,

Had a Shelter 501 for the longest time mounted on a VPI JMW 12 tonearm on a Well-tempered classic! Gave me years of listening pleasure. About a  couple of years ago, happened to listen to a Koetsu RS at a friends place and was completely blown away by the midrange and presentation and soundstage. Records that I heard before sounded twice a good. So bit the bullet and got a Koetsu Black goldline on the same tonearm. Wonderful entry level Koetsu!

A few months ago, I happened to get opportunity to get a Koetsu Urushi gold for a decent price; and also upgraded my turntable/toneram to a Dr Feickart Blackbird + Kuzma 4pt 11. This setup is incredible. I wait to come home everyday from work just to spin a couple of vinyls. The Urushi is getting better as I put the hours on it - midrange, excellent tight bass and the vocals sound eerie!!

[Ears Deluxe]

I've been listening to vinyl for 65 years, and I don't remember all the cartridges from back in the 70s and 80s, but I do remember really liking the Audiotechnica ML150 that I had on my Maplenoll air bearing turntable--fantastic combination. And I also used an Adcom Crosscoil on that table that I liked a lot. I had a Clearaudio Virtuoso wood cartridge that I didn't care for so much--too cold and analytical for my tastes. Now I've got a Zu Denon DL103, which is lovely, and a Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC Star that is by a very wide margin my favorite cartridge I've ever used: detailed yet smooth, substantial, and, above all, supremely musical, flowing, and engaging. I'm using it on my Well Tempered Labs Simplex turntable, and the two work together beautifully running into a PS Audio Nuwav PHono Converter and a PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC, which drives my Audeze LCD XC headphones. And speaking of working together beautifully, it seems to me that it would be helpful for folks listing their cartridges here to include at least what kind of table they're using it on, since a cartridge that would sound brilliant in one tonearm might sound awful in another.

[Calvin]

I began vinyl in the 1960s with my father’s system. I’m not sure what carts he used. I purchased my first TT in the 1970s - I’m not even sure of the TT, much less the carts. 

Fast forward to the present day and now we use:

(1) Air Tight Opus 1
(2) MSL Signature Platinum

While my overall favorite is the Opus 1, both carts sound amazing.

The Opus 1 sounds best with female vocals while the MSL sounds better with Rock. While I use such terms such as ‘best’ and ‘better’ they are still very close in their overall sonic signature (they are both made by MSL).