Proteus compared to MSL ultra eminent ex

Sorry to read Transfiguration is OOB. Always wanted to try one

Thanks Vuckovic and Montesquieu. Very helpful info. I love my Proteus, but getting another very similar sounding cartridge may not be the way to go. Not sure. But the specs and descriptions of sound that I've read for the Ultra Eminent EX are very compelling.

When I bought my Proteus they were £2900 in the UK, the US price was $6000. It faced tougher competition in the US at that price.
I haven’t seen mention of which arm the OP is using but assuming it’s medium mass the Winfield Ti might be a good choice that gives a different flavour to a trans but I’ve no direct experience. With a higher mass arm the Anna comes into play.
I did hear my Proteus on a WT Versalex, when a friend replaced his Radikalised Linn with one and before I bought the Aretmis/Schröder. On the Versalex a Dyna DRT VX-1t was hard to forget, the Proteus wasn’t.

Despite Mijostyn’s opinion I find the Royal N surprisingly good considering its price, with no tracking issues yet encountered nor lack of bass. My arm at 18g plus the Royal N with its cheese at 16g gives a mass of 34g total, an Ortofon TA210 has an effective mass of 5g without a headshell, an SPU G type weighs in at 30g, so only a gram more in total than I have. Frank Schröder, when supplying the brass mounting plate, did suggest I could double it up with the aluminium one if necessary but I find no need to. What there was a need for is fine adjustment of VTA and VTF and I’m glad I went for these options when commissioning my arm but it’s still a sensitive blighter to set up, every screw tension seems to make an audible difference.

Thank you yeti42. I am using a VPI Fatboy gimbal 12" arm on VPI HW40 turntable. 

Arsh, that is VPI's best arm. It is very light considering it's length. EF is 12.5 gms about the same as the SME V 12. You can put pretty much any modern cartridge on it. For most MC cartridges you will have to add some mass which is never a problem you just need a good test record with resonance tracks on it and a set of head shell weights and screws.