opinions on favorite cartridge

So just to get this straight - you are asking for people to tell you which cartridge people like best from the list of cartridges you own. There are two major flaws with this question -

* Listener preference and bias will vary wildly and may or may not be anywhere near your own preferences

* An analog system is the sum of its parts. Cartridge, arm, table, phono, and setup. Change one of these variables, and the whole deal is off.

Most of the people on the forum have the goal of assembling a system with the highest possible audio potential. (with respect to their own biases). If you have this goal, then you need to do 2 things:

1. Upgrade your phono stage. I've owned the PS Audio and borrowed the Sim. The Sim is better than the PS in my experience. The phono stage is arguably the most important in the analog system, and you have a large gap in potential here between what you have and higher end, better sounding phonos.

2. Sell all your mid tier cartridges, and buy 1 or 2 really nice ones. The 309 is a good arm and gives you quite a bit of flexibility. If it were me, I might consider a Lyra Delos, Dynavector XX2, or the best benz or Ortofon I could get for $2k or so.

If, on the other hand, you just like to tweak and play around with stuff - then keep up what you're doing

Manitunic, The PS Audio is a good contender at its $1000 price, and has quite a bit of flexibility with its options, but there are much better sounding phono stages out there.

I owned the GCPH and borrowed a ASR Mini Basis Exclusive to compare with, and it was night and day - a significantly bigger difference than when I compared a couple $300 -$500 carts to some $1500 - $2000 carts. So at the ~$2900 I would recommend looking into that.

I'm sure the full ASR Basis stage is better, but much more expensive.

Another stage that I haven't personally heard but people seem to like is the Ayre.

I'm sure Aesthetix is quite good too - I haven't heard them though.

Maybe bring a couple home to compare?