Dear Nandric: the reference to Plato and Aristotle was intended to mark a contrast with those in a pluralistic democracy who deny that theres a legitimate perspective from which to condemn an individuals personal ends. Thats not to say there are no illegitimate ends, but we can draw the distinction (see: harm principle) without getting into the nitty gritty of an individuals conception of her own good.
In that light, recall that the epigram is pushpins, poetry: whatever and not benevolence, pleonexia, murder: whatever. Unless youre comparing owning 100 MM carts and testing 2 carts a day to murder and thievery, theres no issue here.
Even if my wallet were willing, my personality would never permit me to buy a $3k cartridge. Admittedly thats one reason I love the MM thread: it comforts the bargain hunter in me, nurturing the idea that I can have 10 quality MM carts for the price of one MC cart. You may charge me with the vice of acquisitiveness, but I would say I love pluralism ;-).
Dear Raul: thanks for the advice. Unfortunately for me, my AT headshell is one of those tiny, short and stubby ones that make little allowance for adjustment. I just tried mounting the Empire on it and I dont have the required, very, very short, screws. Worse: I have no idea where to get them. My Azden is also out of commission until I figure out how to deal with the universal mount adapter it came with. The adapter covers all but a tiny bit of the carts pins and theres no way for me to get my lead wires onto them. Ive already destroyed a set of lead wires trying. Is the adapter supposed to have its own pins or are the carts pins supposed to stick out through the adapter? Ive never even seen a p mount cart before this one so I dont know whats going on.
On a brighter note, I swapped my Signet freak cart from its AT headshell onto a Sony headshell I had lying about, and its clearly better for it. In my ignorance, I had believed that the AT headshell to be just better simpliciter and didnt even think to try the Sony on it. Hume wins again: pretense to causal knowledge be damned; try everything and see what happens.