Cartridges - what have you owned and your opinion


Saw this on audiocircle and thought it may be fun to list some cartridges that you have owned and lived with and your opinion of them.
These are not reviews, just your observations of how they sound in your system.

Dynavector XV-1 - owned this since the turn of the century and my favorite cartridge of all time. Mainly due to its ability to sound natural and un hifi sounding. Slightly loose in the bass, and naturally detailed in the higher frequencies with nice dynamics.
- I load at between 100 and 250ohms and track at 2.05 grams. Currently getting rebuilt for the 3rd time.

Lyra Helikon - very detailed cartridge which tended to float from note to note, but ultimately a little too leading edge for my tastes so sold it a few years back.

Audio Technica OC9-II - closer sounding to the Helikon than the cheaper price should allow. The OC9 has terrific transparency and detail, but also smooth. Somewhat lean bass and incredible bargin for the price. Ultimately connects with my head more than my heart.
I load at 25 or 50ohms and track at 1.75 gms.

Denon 103R - another great cartridge, which in direct comparison to the OC9 sounds a little grey and grainy especially in the higher frequencies. But and a big but, it connects with the heart and has a very nice ripe bass with lovely mid range. lower treble can be a little etched. Overall a great little cartridge that is very musical and to the heart

Benz Ruby 2 - don't really have anything positive to say about this cartridge - grey, grainy, undynamic and unmusical.

Koetsu Rosewood - lovely musical sounding cartridge. Not as transparent as some cartridges, but has a nice robust sound which is quite pleasing to some mediocre recordings. Tracks adequate, but not as well as my other cartridges. Another cartridge which plays to the heart.
- Hates being loaded into a high primary transformer load of say my EAR 834 - 40 ohms. Impedance loading sounds nice around 100ohms.
downunder
Taste and System is always different to each but I would like to rate them in another way

I was impressed from :
Fidelity Research Fr-7 series
Takeda Miyabi Standard
Zyx UNIverse

"ok" cartridges, but no sleepless nights
(some of them I listened to in real High End Systems too)
Clearaudio Goldfinger
Dynavector XV-1s
Kondo IO
Lyra Skala
Zyx 4D

Here I was glad when the "performance" was finished
Air Tight PC-1
MySonic Lab Eminent
Music Maker
most Koetsus
Shelter 90x
Grado ZTE+, Black, Green, Prestige Gold
Audio Technica AT125LC, and few more lower
Schure M97xE
ADC XLM MKII Improved
Clearaudio Aurum Classics Wood

My pick for best performance/price is ADC XLM, then comes AT125LC, both at under $100 for both cartridge and stylus. On my turntables (Clearaudio Bluemotion and Thorens TD145MKii), Clearaudio does not sound distinctively better than ADC XLM.
Without considering the price, I would go for Clearaudio, ADC XLM, Grado Gold, and ATC125LC. Currently using Grado Gold on Bluemotion and ADC XLM on Thorens. For me it is hard to distinguish sound on either unless I pay close attention. Thorens/ADC wins in very slight margin over Bluemotion/Grado Gold with slightly deeper base and wider sound stage.
I need to think this one thruuuuu
Audio Technica 20SL
Ortofon can't remember the designator
Various Grados
8Sig.,TLZ, The Reference
The Koetsu Rosewood
and then I HEARD A HUGE SLEW of them on friends high end systems.This question almost dates me back to the 70's,
But I'm happy some manufacturers have not given up with the passion of creating new phono cartridges i.e.Koetsu, Grado