I have also some experience in comparing cartridges, and this experience might add some things to this very nice forum.
I have already used and compared several cartridges, and I ended liking very much the opened, dynamic, refined and colored sound of Van de Hul The Crimson and Ortofon SPU...
Excellent comparisons Shakti!
Have you compared the Ikeda 9TT to vdH the Crimson?
Also, since ART9 is a high compilance cartidge, and Ikeda 407 arm is a high mass arm, how do they work well togehter?
I love the sound of SPU Meister Silver MKII, but this cartridge with the Ikeda IT-407 arm sounds surprisingly worst than with a Jelco TK 950L arm! Using the same Synergistic Research cable (that sounds better than the original Ikeda and Jelco cables). Any thoughts?