So, with Cary's recent sale (30% off!), I went ahead and ordered a VT-500 direct from them. With a 30 day return policy, I also order a reverse RIAA filter so I could just stream from Tidal for the recommended 100 hour break in period, rather than playing vinyl to get it to a reasonable evaluation point to compare it to my Audio Research Ref Phono 2SE.
I had a friend over whose judgment I trust, and we spent a couple of hours playing records we both knew well. I have a test record with a 1000 Hz test tone so I could level set the two phono stages (the ARC has a 74dB gain for MC cartridges, while the Cary has 65 dB gain).
(The rest of my system, as in my signature, consists of a Cary CAD300SEI integrated amp - with all the upgrades from Cary and NOS tubes to replace the stock input tubes - an AMG Giro turntable with the AMG tonearm, a Benz Micro Gullwing SLR cartridge, Wilson Audio Sasha 2 speakers, and all Transparent Audio Gen5 Ultra speaker and interconnects. My room is pretty lively, with hardwood floors and no real treatments beyond soft furniture, window treatments and rugs).
At first, I felt that the only significant difference between was that there was more bass from the ARC. But after more listening back and forth, both my friend and I agreed that in comparison the bass from the VT-500 was more controlled and was actually overemphasized in the ARC. We also both felt as we listened more that the Cary was more revealing and detailed, without sounding artificial at all (that is to say, not clinical sounding as some "detailed" systems can to me).
Long story short - I'm keeping the VT-500!
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