benz micro LP or KISEKI PURPLE EARTH?


Hi all,

My turntable Mìtchel with sme V and FM acoustic interconnect cable need a new cartridge. My previous cartridge was Benz Wood. The 2 in the title are what I can get for my budget. I listen mostly Jazz, Rock and Classic and my phono preamp and preamp are both Soulution.

What's your suggestion? 

renatocomes

I have the JA Michell gyro se with a Moerch DP 6 arm.

Recently switched cartridges from a Benz Ruby Z to a Hana Umami Red.

My Ruby Z was 4 yrs old with 1500+ hrs but still sounded good.

The Hana is a huge upgrade, though maybe not a fair comparison. 

Plenty of reviews on line, the Hana is an "overachiever "

 

My experience with the both the Benz and Kiseki is the Kiseki Purpleheart is underwhelming - muddy and not high resolution.

For your budget ( I used to distribute the SME v ) have a look at the van den hul range - they match the 11g effective mass of the SME beautifully with great results in my experience and are much better than the Hana.

Soundsmith MI from the Paua up are also superb - better than the Kiseki for sure. I listened to SS Paua on the SME V for a couple of years - superb combo - better than either Lyra Skala SL or Koetsu Rosewood in the same system.

I'm using a Lyra Kleos with my Gyrodec/SME 309 set up. I recently had a Technics SL-1210 GAE and used a Kiseki Purpleheart on that table. I agree with dover regarding the Purpleheart. I sold the technics table and really have no desire to swap out the Kleos for the Purpleheart. 

With a Series V tonearm I’d be jumping on an alnico magnet Dynavector ASAP.

XX-2 MKII, Te Kaitora Rua or DRT XV-1s as you budget allows.

Even better with a Sutherland Transimpedance phono input 👍