Moving coil with a bit less leading edge

Syntax, I assume the wooden arm wands are used to handle resonances. Am I missing something? Thanks for the description of the Lyra vs. the ZYX cartridges. I had not realized they were designed to deal with the energy in completely different ways. Would you care to comment on how an SME arm mates with a Lyra cartridge?

Live orchestral music indoors in a decent hall has always sound incredibly clear and crisp to me and leading edges have never sounded rounded off. I regularly attend the Boston Symphony Orchestra but other orchestras in other hall also sound that way. Boston Symphony Hall happens to have particularly good acoustics.

I agree with the suggestion above, that if you are hearing leading edges that hurt your ears, that are too much or cause fatigue, then perhaps it is some kind of artifact somewhere in the chain. A softer cartridge will hide the problem, but it will obscure other musical information in the process and probably will not give you long term musical satisfaction. If it were me, I would buy the most neutral and resolving cartridge I could afford and investigate what is causing the problem with your aggressive leading edges.

It could very well be cartridge loading, cartridge set up or any number of things down stream.