I also appreciate your input Musikdok. It's just that a fact sometimes has more impact on me than an idea. Re. the Michell Delphini: I have only heard the Allaerts MC2 on two turntables: the Simon Yorke S7 and the Simon Yorke S9. Yes, it was "rich and full bodied" (on the human voice and acoustic instruments), superb at retrieval of low-level information, dynamics and room information--all given that the phono preamp can handle the cartridge (I know that I am laboring this point)! The editors of the German audio magazine Image HiFi have been searching for a suitable phono preamp for this cartridge for the last year or so: they judge nearly every phono preamp they review on the basis of how it performs with one of the Allaerts. A very, very few phono stages make the grade, because of the S/N ratio. I have heard the Allaerts set up with a Lavardin phono preamp (at a trade show), and not sound as good (even on expensive Avalon speakers). I have not heard it on a Michell Delphini, beautiful table that it is (I can understand why you are so happy). Musikdok, do you mean by "refinement of the unit" the "research and development that went into" the Delphini? If so, the answer is simple: buy an Allaerts. If the table was optimized in the lab to perform best with an Allaerts, then it will sound optimal with an Allaerts. What cartridge do you use now? The SME V would harmonize with the Allaerts; it does with almost all cartridges. I agree with your phono hierarchy (in most cases), but where does the phono stage fit into it? In the case of the Allaerts, I would say the phono stage is just as important. There is good reason to buy a new phono stage just to accomodate this cartridge. Marlec: the S7 is more than decent, its superb, in the same class as the Forsell, and the top of the line Maplenoll. The only two turntables that I think might be better (theoretically speaking, since I have not heard them) are the Simon Yorke Archive, and the Rockport. BTW I think that I saw Jan Allaerts at the last Frankfurt High End show--I seem to remember his Belgian accent. Yes, it is coming back to me. He was very impassioned, maybe even madly so in the refridgerator-like context of a German audio trade fair. He called the people who used his cartridges "connoiseurs." Yes, that is the word he used.