Cart Recommendations

Thanks everyone for the responses and providing detail to your recommendations.  I'll try to narrow

Thanks for the suggestions so far!  I've looked into each of them and will try to audition the ones I can find locally.  Also, I really like the H-3000 and HA-3000 combo in my system. 

Has anyone had experience with the Kiseki Purpleheart NS?  That is another that has popped up that might be an option, as well.

Yes, there are many good options which is good and bad.  Apparently I am so overwhelmed that I could not even complete my response above!

Anyway, I wish there were more places where I could audition the carts mentioned above.  I'll audition the Benz Gullwing and LPS as well as the Ortofon Cadenza Black and Bronze next week.  The Paua is interesting, too, so will see if I can find a place to audition that.

I can't find a place that has the ART 9, but may pick one up since the cost of entry is very reasonable so the risk in trying one is very low.

A local dealer sells VPI and Graham, so can construct a similar system to mine, but I know that auditioning will not provide a complete impression on how the cart will perform in my room.  I just want to get a general feel for the cart's signature sound to see if it's appealing to me.

I want to couple that with opinions from folks here for some direction based on your experiences, too.  I'm not chasing the "perfect" sound (whatever that may be), but I'm just hoping that all of this information can get me down to a few options to make it a little less of a crap shoot in finding something that makes me happy (for now).

Sounds like I need to pick up an ART 9 to at least try out before going in another direction.  If it, for some reason, doesn't work out on my system, I can always put it on my son's RP6.