How Cartridges Fall Out Of Favor Over Time

I'm in the headshell of the month club and have a variety of cartridges ranging from a couple of old Shure carts outfitted with JICO SAS styli to a couple of fairly expensive carts, including a van den Hul Crimson XGW Stradivarius, which seems to be one of those cartridges that some feel is "out of favor". 

I mentioned it in another venue recently and there were a couple of people that shared very strong negative impressions of the brand, while another person absolutely loves the one he has.  I'm somewhere in the middle of the road.  It's not the cartridge I love the most, but it does many things well and I enjoy it. We like what we like, it doesn't really matter what others think.  Those opinions may help guide us towards or away from a choice, but once we make it, it's on us to decide whether it was the right choice or not.

I have 3 turntables, all with removeable headshells (one is in a second system) and while a fixed headshell may (or may not) have some sonic advantages, I really enjoy being able to swap out cartridges. I have a total of 9 cartridges to choose from.  Three or four of them came with turntables I bought, or were very cheap, so had I spent what I have on one or two "grail" cartridges, I'm not sure I could it would be much better than the best ones I have, which are a Dynavector XV-1s, the van den Hul, and a Zu Denon DL-103 that has been hot-rodded by Andy Kim.  

I got a couple of turntables 7 I think only one set up .I need to get busy I guess as a bought an estate sale who was a retired rec exec for a major company and have many records.happy listening

Inna:

We have no disagreement.  Thanks for your post,

Shelter is the one I  stuck with after Grado, Sumiko and a couple others I forget from 20+ years ago.  The Shelter plays my kind of classical based rock the best.  Strong bass and super clear highs on my SL1210 table with thr KAB re-wire and RCA connection.  Plus it tracks the most difficult passages with zero issues like no other I've had.  I'd love to get the Harmony version if I ever get brave enough to cough up the dough.  -John

One factor in the gradual relegation of certain brand names to the back burner, at least internet-wise, has been the introduction to the marketplace of many completely new brands over the last decade, even though many of those are actually made by Excel or other audio conglomerates that formerly built cartridges for the more familiar brand names, for example of a new player, Hana. Meanwhile, some of the best known and highly regarded brands have folded their corporate tents, like Koetsu, Kiseki, etc. (Never mind that some of those old names have been reintroduced by new entities who bought the rights in name only.) Thus it’s just a moving window that sheds light on what’s new.