Please Recommend Me a Cartridge

[mulveling]

For a much less common recommendation - Shelter Harmony. Mine’s grown on me over the months to where it now competes for listening time with my very favorite Koetsu (an Onyx Signature, which I now prefer over the Onyx and Coralstone Platinums).

It should be a good match with SME and its output of 0.5mV is basically ideal for your 60dB phono gain.

Extremely balanced, satisfying sound. Very punchy, clean bass. Midrange is beautiful; it has some of the Koetsu magic - but of course Koetsu still reigns supreme there. Probably a tad more detailed than Koetsu, and somehow has an even lower noise floor (lowest I’ve ever heard), which is no small feat to defeat a Koetsu at. Amazing how it digs up all that detail and rejects so much noise!