Cartridge For Audio Note TT1 and Michell Tecnoarm

The 10X5 is a really good cartridge, matches the arm quite well, and will kick things up a notch.

That said, I would go a different direction. I find the built in phono stage to be a bit of an underachiever and would go with a Musical Surroundings Phonomena, Bottlehead Seduction or similar phono stage.

I believe that it will make a bigger difference and set you up for buying a better cartridge down the road.

The only thing I'm concerned with about the 10x5 is its tracking on a very sensitive suspension TT, like the AN. Any experience with it on a suspension TT?

Hmm, I was afraid you were going to say to look at a separate phono stage.... I've read great things about the Phonomena but don't know much about the Seduction, and both are around my budget. I'm both intrigued by the look of the Seduction but a bit intimidated by building a kit, since I've never tried it -- any experience with it as well?

I tried the 20XL on both a Logic Tempo E, which is a suspended deck as well as on a Thorens TD150 without issue. Then again, my rack is spiked to a concrete slab below my carpet. It's very hard to predict the interactions between suspended tables, room nodes and support resonances. So I really can't offer any guidance on that one.

I currently own a Seduction, that I have rebuilt and modified, among other phono stages, and just sold my Phonomena this week. So yes, I have owned a ton of moderately priced phono stages and I like both of these very much.

Built Seductions come up on this site from time to time. The crap shoot is that they are only as good as the builder, so perhaps that might be something to avoid.

The Phonomena would be a no brainer for you. Even though the 10X5 is categorized as high output, it's output is on the lowish side for a high output cartridge and with the Phonomena you could increase the gain a bit. And, of course, you could also use it with a low output cartridge in the future. You might also have a look at the excellent PS Audio phono stage, used examples will be close to your price range, and the Musical Fidelity phono preamps are quite good sounding as well. While you are at it, have a look at the Rogue Stealth which is in your price range used.

IMHO the ones to avoid are the Lehmann Black Cube and the Cambridge Audio 640P but YMMV.