Just to add, to Raul and Peter, the Celebration fits your decription to a tee
"I'm looking for something that's neutral- not lush, but not analytical at the expense of musicality either. I listen to a wide variety of classical music, much of it orchestral (mb 40-50% of my collection), in addition to rock (30%), w/ world music, r & b, & jazz making up the remainder of my listening in about equal proportions."
If you can set the cart load to 1K ohms do so for the Celebration, it really is like finding the right VTA with some carts - it just locks everything in to where the "magic" is just so obvious. I use a Basis Vector, but your SME will really work well with the Celebration (as it can send a little energy back into the arm and the SME is SUPER stable and able to take anything a cart can send). I have the same listening priorities as yourself - mostly larger Symphonic works (Romantic and Modern era's) and the Celebration throws a huge stage, hall info (at 1k loading), palpable players in stage ("see around", not "see through" carboardy players), it does vocals and rock very well, great pace, great layering and dynamics,..... I would have to go to a Lyra Titan, top ZYX or Transfiguration to beat it. I have had mine a few years now, maybe 800 hrs???? and its stylus looks like it has very little use - so it seems to really last as well.
"I'm looking for something that's neutral- not lush, but not analytical at the expense of musicality either. I listen to a wide variety of classical music, much of it orchestral (mb 40-50% of my collection), in addition to rock (30%), w/ world music, r & b, & jazz making up the remainder of my listening in about equal proportions."
If you can set the cart load to 1K ohms do so for the Celebration, it really is like finding the right VTA with some carts - it just locks everything in to where the "magic" is just so obvious. I use a Basis Vector, but your SME will really work well with the Celebration (as it can send a little energy back into the arm and the SME is SUPER stable and able to take anything a cart can send). I have the same listening priorities as yourself - mostly larger Symphonic works (Romantic and Modern era's) and the Celebration throws a huge stage, hall info (at 1k loading), palpable players in stage ("see around", not "see through" carboardy players), it does vocals and rock very well, great pace, great layering and dynamics,..... I would have to go to a Lyra Titan, top ZYX or Transfiguration to beat it. I have had mine a few years now, maybe 800 hrs???? and its stylus looks like it has very little use - so it seems to really last as well.