Best MM?

Just put a new Virtuoso ebony in my system on Thursday. It's not broke in yet but is showing great potential. Other MM's I've tried that are very good:
empire 4000 diii with bliss stylus
Grado signature with XTC stylus 

That said, chakster & lewm have a lot more experience than I with MM's...

Chakster,
+1 Joe should have been proud of the XTC. It is a great cartridge. 

Halcro,
+1 for the empire 4000 d/iii gold. In my system it has a little more precision than the XTC. That said, the XTC is probably closer to live music in that I don't hear instrument in precise locations at concerts.

FWIW, I picked up a NOS ebony virtuoso for cheap money & although it's not completely broken in yet is showing true potential. It's closer to the empire in regard to presentation. I mounted it on a new headshell with silver wire, so I've still got about 40 hours before making a true comparison. 

Warning: Political Switch Has Been Activated 

" The naturalness of timbre and overall presentation of music is just great for a cartridge"

+1 That is exactly what I like about well designed MM's