I now realise I went on a really weird, and largely expensively stupid route through cartridges trying to find something I already had. I blame reading hifi magazines, but probably my own fault. In 1978, I heard a Decca London Blue in a Decca International arm, on a Garrard 401, and it was sublime. I had a Thorens 160 at the time, and found an Audiocraft AC300 unipivot arm and bought a Decca Blue, and was happy for a couple of years, I then got a gold, and it was rather more forgiving, but maybe not quite as organic? I then heard a Rega 3, and a Linn LP12 and realised my Thorens wasn't really that good, so I sold it (with the arm - bad move...) and bought a Rega 3, with I think, an A&R P77 and it was certainly easier listening than the Decca with it's marginal tracking - and I was convinced (why?) that the Decca would only work in a unipivot. The P77 was replaced by a Rega R100, then I got an LP12/basik and a K9. This lasted some years though I found that the AT95E stylus was rather better than the Linn one. I then got a Linn Karma when everyone was upgrading to the Troika, and an Ittok when everyone was getting an Ekos. Then Naim launched the ARO, but I wasn't convinced it would outperform my Ittok, but a friend got one, and it did, so I bought an ARO, and through personal contacts got a Lyra Lydian very cheap. I could have had just about any Lyra at an affordable price, but the Lydian, I felt, was the best of the range at the time. I now has a unipivot, so tried my Decca gold again, and it was amazing, but tracking was still a bit 'iffy', so stuck with the Lydian for day to day listening. When it worse out I sent it to Japan for a service, and was offered a Lydian Beta at a price I couldn't refuse. Whilst this was going on I bought the cheapest MC I could find - a Denon DL103. When the Lydian Beta arrived, it was certainly smoother than the DL103, but maybe lacked excitement - more like the Parnassus a friend used, smooth, refined, slightly boring.
As the Beta aged I lost contact with my Lyra supplier, so I started looking at other options, and modified DL-103s seemed to be a thing, so I decided to try the selected and rebodied Zu Denon DL103 - this was amazing - shades of the Decca dynamics with the resolution of the Lyras, I was happy. A wine related 'incident' brought forward a retip, and ESCO offered me their sapphire cantilever and paratrace stylus and I decided this may be the best of all worlds - and it was.
So, to answer the original question:
Best all rounder Zu/Esco/Denon DL-103 - in a Naim ARO - dynamic, detailed, natural.
Most exciting and realistic - I'm currently using My Decca Gold in a Transcriptors Vestigial arm - it's probably not ideal, but music is about fun, excitement, entertainment, rhythm, dynamics and dancing - the Decca does it for me.
Sensible choice - Lyra Lydian - original - the 'better' Lyras are too 'refined' - works well in a range of arms, and maybe if I wanted an easy life I'd have a Rega P9 and Lydian with the ESCO paratrace, but I'd always be thinking the DL103 is 'better'.