Troika suspension only good for five years? That doesn't really tally with people's experience of them here. I know of several that are three or four retips new, twenty years old and still going great guns.
Indeed, I agree, though this is a generalisation. MICK, your CD and record sound (almost?) identical now, but what was the situation a year or two ago.. Was this always the case?
Comparing vinyl to CD often tells you very little as you are likely comparing different masterings/cuts made at different mastering studios and by different mastering engineers.
Indeed, listening comparisons are really important but to be meaningful they've got be in a similar system to your own. I've found my ARO a real advantage for facilitating this, and if you've a friend with a spare arm it makes it pretty easy. I have listened to the DV XX2 Mk2 in my system because a friend was thinking of buying one. It's very good but not up to the TKR in my system.
I did a comparison between the XV1s & Linn Kandid recently. A friend's got a very similar system to mine & he kindly lent me his spare arm so my dealer could fit a demo Kandid, which I then fitted in my own system for comparison with the TKR. Clearly better. Then I took the arm with Kandid fitted over to his system & we did a comparison with his XV1s. There were three of us listening & it was fascinating how much we differed in our perceptions over what we heard.
I preferred the Kandid, someone else much preferred the DV, and the other friend was undecided. Opinions on characteristics such as bass, mid, treble, scale, and stereo image varied significantly between us. I ended up buying a Kandid but in truth both are superb cartridges and I'd have been happy with either. It's very difficult to carry out these sorts of comparisons but you do learn a lot from them.
The XV1t, however, is a rather different proposition!