Whats the best Cartridge for a bright Pro-ject 9 ?


I just got a Pro-ject 9 here on Audiogon about 3 weeks ago. I'm having trouble matching a cartridge with it. It sounds high pitched and very analytical with a Sumiko Blue Point on it. The Blue Point sounded great on my Nad 533 but sounds wrong on the Pro-ject 9. The bass sounds bloated and the highs have a hiss and there is hardly any mid range. The turntable is in great condition. Someone recommended the Ruby CL by Sound Smith but I fear it won't warm up the sound. The previous owner recommended a Grado. Any more recommendations?
128x128zeal
How about a smooth sounding moving magnet such as a Shure M97XE, or a Denon 160 high output moving coil. Both are slightly on the warm side of neutral.
Michael
Your question is rife with crazy making. I have discovered that the balancing act of using a bright component with a rolled off contrasting component introduces additional problems to the system. My suggestion is to use components that have flat perspectives. That is the only way to have the whole system working to its best advantage. What I have done in my system is to buy components of a manufacturer whose ideas of good sound matches mine. All these components from the same manufacturer were designed around each other, and therefore they work the best with each other. I have found that choosing excellent components (choose those from The Absolute Sound, Stereophile, etc. top 10 list), putting these components together can give you quite an awful sounding system....the strengths of each of these components being mitigated by the other components. ...jut a thought....
06-27-08: Headsnappin
Zeal, try lowering the back of the arm as dynavectors correct vta is a touch low in the back.
I absolutely agree! This has a profound effect on the balance between leading edges and detail on one hand and the bloom and body of the sound on the other. Lower your arm 2-3 mm and see what you get. Your ideal sound may be literally "under your nose."

If Pro-Ject's arm height adjuster is too much hassle, put a spacer between the cartridge and headshell, or put on a thicker mat. You could even cut out a few 12" circles of cardboard and stack 'em under your mat until you start hearing the shift in tonality.
07-13-08: Stringreen
Your question is rife with crazy making. I have discovered that the balancing act of using a bright component with a rolled off contrasting component introduces additional problems to the system.
Boy, you got that right! A couple months ago I got a Cambridge Audio 640P phono section. This is pretty linear, but on the fast and detailed side. The specs rate the RIAA curve accuracy out to 50KHz. Anyway, I tried feeding it to a Hafler Series 915 JFET class A line stage that was reputedly "designed to sound like a tube stage" and the result was just weird.

The speed and detail of the 640P somehow got turned into a sort of tubby, rubbery presentation, and I didn't get the full potential out of the 640P until I fed it into a similarly fast, linear, wideband line stage.