Very hard to come by, Derockster. I waited about 2 years before I caught one.
It is indeed better than the std ADC XLM stylus....but, really, the XLM itself is most of the benefit and the elliptical of the XLM is less dicey to set up right. It gets the music right...the Astrion gets a little more nuanced detail and a little finer treble response (as a long line, pretty much as it should)
But, I love the XLM and took a hike up to adoration with the Astrion. But, honestly,
most of the goodness is already there with the std stylus I feel. A little bit of me actually prefers the std stylus for it wholeness of sound. Hard to explain, but I actually do.
btw orthobiz....the ADC XLM Mk. II works well with the
AQ PT-6 arm you'll be seeing soon aa NOS ones can likely be found from
www.soundsunique.com for something like $79.00
. Until those are gone, it is my de facto cartridge of choice for most under $150.00 - $200.00 (so long as your arm is not a porker...the AQ is about 12 grams so it mostly works there)
It smokes the AT440 for realism, gusto and realistic treble...and is a lot less fussy than the Grado's. The rest of the competition tend to cost far more on up to $300.00 (except the pretty nice sounding Denon 110/160). Derockster loves his XLM, he's just looking for the little more like most vinylphools
John
