clearaudio champion w/ unify but what cartridge?


i'm getting ready to set-up my new clearaudio champion with the carbon fiber unify tone arm and i'm looking to get some cartridge recommendations. I'm moving up from a MMF 2.2 with a blue point no. 2 and in fantasy land i'd like to end up with a stradivari. but to start what would some good matches between 300 and 1000USD? Or if anyone has a used symphony you'd like to sell me?
keilschmeil

Showing 4 responses by keilschmeil

concerto would be nice, a little out of reach at the moment, unless you know of a used one you could point me to?
so ended up settling on a virtuoso for the time being.

when the time is right i'll step it up to a concerto or stradivari

thank you
thank you, i am very excited to get it up and running...

as for equipment and materials:
i have a clearaudio basic phono preamp. It can handle lomc to mm, i dont know how low, it lists as having an 800ohm input load for MC, i honestly dont know how low a cartridge it could power, but it seems like it could manage quite a wide range. as for music... I listen to jazz, mostly later "free-er" jazz, late coltrane ayler and pharoah sanders. david bowie, radiohead, my bloody valentine, sonic youth, the velvet underground, arcade fire, bjork, beck, black sabbath, mahler, janceck, bartok, glass, stravinsky, so quite a range of music as well. I'm most looking for neutrality I dont want anything overly warmed I dont mind analytical sound If i can hear things i've never heard before that's what gets me going, i get gooey enough over that, i dont need a cartridge to goo it up for me. That's why i went the clearaudio direction their known for extreme detail and pulling everything out of the recording that's there and not translating much of anything, and, i'm cool with that. My amp and speakers are known for being perhaps a little bass heavy so i dont need help there, I've been pleased with the Blue point, but i sense something missing in the mids, seems a little muddy at times i'd like to blow open the sound stage and hear the windings of metal strings on guitar and the rosin wafting off the cello sections bows.

if you have it check out the first track on marc ribot's prosthetic cubans, if it were only available on vinyl, 'cuz being able to bring his guitar on the first track into my listening space would be the moment of self destruction. If there is a cartridge that bring that can bring that out of say the black keys or seer off of whitch's first album, i'd die a happy man.

thanks for any input
I've been enjoying the virtuoso for a few months now. The unify arm is so sensitive to outside vibrations that i ended up building a wall mount for the TT and have been so pleased with the results. The virtuoso is great it has impressed me and my friends time and time again. I recently replaced the basic with an EAR 834p and have been blown away yet again. The cartridge is great at putting the performers right there in front of you and the differences that can be heard in between this analog set-up and my digital components are amazing. I would highly recommend the virtuoso. Though I havent done much comparing as I've been so pleased. I am awaiting the arrival of a Concerto. I dont know what to expect, I hope it's earth shattering but I'm trying to get my expectations too high.