Cmt_cra,
The Finish is certainly worth prioritizing. An exceptional cartridge by any standards. I disagree with your friend. I don't think its so much a question of 'wooden' tonearms or who distributes what. To my ear there is a natural synergy between the Shroeder and Allaerts (though it is true that they both require considerable patience and work to get the best out of the combination). I have heard the Finish in my own arms (6 or 7) and in a few more elsewehere, and would always choose the Schroeder as natural mate. It also likes a good air bearing and the Sme V or 312 (if they are rewired). As a combination the Schroeder / Allaerts can sound flat if not carefully set up. The Finish can sound v. odd and even thin, white/ wintery with wrong SUT or phono.
You can measure DC kickback when switching on a phonostage but it's a complicated matter, and its not clear exactly how many millivolts will initiate damage (40mv?). The symptoms are a loss of some volume or signal in one channel (usually the right) which means a rebuild. The main thing is to be safe than sorry, and i would contact Jan Allaerts directly to ask about specific phonostages. The Tron Seven is completely safe with it, and sounds excellent. The TEAD Groove SRX needs to warm up 2 hours before connection and will sound leaner but incredibly fast. The Kondo SFZ step up/M77 is amazing but needs a resistor to bring it up to 845 ohms. It can be dangerous to feed the Finish an incorrect load as it can snap the very thin/delicate gold coil windings. After all this though it can reward with really wonderful sound.
