My bad (Madfloyd) ...
Upon a re-read, I see that you were interested in the standard Ebony, with which I have no experience. I should wait until my first cup of coffee before posting.
I too was looking to open up the discussion on the cartridges.
It's interesting that the name that Benz once reserved for their top of the line Ebony LP, is now used for another cartridge (o.k. ... without the "LP").
The LP "S" class is BTW an astounding cartridge, and one of the few which would not make me cry if I had to give up my XV-1s.
My experience of the earlier Rubies (Ruby 2 and not the 3) is that they were very nice, but just the slightest bit warm in the mid-bass.
I described them to Frank Schroeder as a wonderful cartridge which was designed using good solid state electronics as a reference. I wonder if the "lesser" of the Ebony cartridges addresses this slight mid-bass bloat (emphasis on the word "slight").
Frank Schroeder and I commiserated about this a few years ago and were in agreement - that with the introduction of what was then called the LP Ebony, they hit it out of the park.
Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier
