Which cartridge is the Imaging/soundstaging champ

Qdrone:
My system has evolved over many years. the speaker positioning, room treatment have all been tweaked to the max. The same electronics, cables speakers image
beautifully with good cd and sacd recordings. It's just the analog source that is deficient in soundstage/image placement and specificity.
My current cartridge is the Grado statement sonata mentioned in my original posting.It's a low output moving iron.
The soundstaging issue crosses all musical genre. The tonal balance of the system is good to excellent overall.

Sbank,
It was my understanding that the Shelter 501 II was a low compliance cart. and would not match the JMW 9 well. Obviously, your experience was different.
Does anyone else have experience with this combo?

Dougdeacon et al:
Please educate me on stylus configurations and their association with
their performance perameters. Is there a specific "sound" associated with different stylus geometries? I assume as is the case with solid state vs tubes, a lot has to do with the execution of the design. However, in the ss vs tube discussion there are frequently consistent properties of each technology.
Jim

Dougdeacon:

Wow, thanks for such and ereudite discussion! This explains a lot.
So I guess the critical question is this: Will the JMW 9 arm allow
one of the better ZYX cartrides display their excellent detail retreival properties, or is the law of dinishing returns alive and well in this arm.
Is is more reasonable to use one of the sub $1000 Dynavectors, Helikons?
Will something like the Airy 2 shine or will its potential be wasted?
Certainly the Shelter 501 has many proponents. I'm willing to spring for the $$$
for the airy if its' potential is realized.
Thanks again
JIm

Raul:
There are probably two issues. First, my phono cable is pretty new (Cardas Neutral Reference) and probably needs more break-in, I think I need to replace the tubes in my phono section,as I believe they're getting noisy ( I have the EAR 864 preamp which is a single chassis version of the EAR 834P & the EAR 834 line stage).My speakers (Von Schweikert VR4jr) are set up well because they develop a beautiful holographic stage with good digital material.
The other factor is probably my extrremely high expextations. The soundstage is good with decent image body and good depth, but I'm looking for truly outsanding 3 dimensionality that I believe my analog front end is capable of.
I realize that analog excellence comes from a series of small improvements.
My Grado cartridge, while acceptable is definitely not a high resolution piece.
I knew it when I got it, but wanted something inexpensive (less than $500)
to get started with.

Thanks all!!!
I've ordered a ZYX airy from Mehran.
My system is very warm with tubes tubes and more tubes.
A neutral, high resolution, detail retrieving cartridge should work perfectly.
My EAR 834P MC section has 100 Ohm input impedance, and enough gain.
Hopefully, all will match up well.
Jim

Qdrone:
I know that designers always incorporate their personal taste in the creation of their products. I think our role as music lovers is not just to learn their biases, but to be designers ourselves. No system that's created to excel in one type of music will ultimately be satisfying in the long term. Our job as we design our own systems is to select components that give us satisfaction with many types of music. By blending strengths of different components a system should be able to provide long term pleasure. My musical tastes evolve continuously. I've gone through phases of Choral music, small scale singer-songwriters, Mahler, classic rock. As a young man I was involved in performing almost all musical genres at different stages.
Ultimately, a component makes music or not. Any product that is designed for a small niche can't provide long term satisfaction. Clearly no component or system can be perfect, but real music whether amplified, acoustic or acapella has an inherent rightness that is not hard to recognize.
Hopefully, the neutrality of the ZYX cartridge will fit
with this concept of music reproduction.
Any ZYX owners care to chime in with their .02??

Readster:
The 17D2Mk2 weighs 5.3 grams. Are you mounting yours to the JMW9 au naturale or are you using the VPI 3 gram headshell weight?
Are any others mounting 5 gram cartridges to the JMW 9 without the extra headshell weight? Has anyone tried it both ways.......?
Jim