I’ll just quote from my own post to expand on what I view as the highlights/the things I learned the most from:
This was both a great cartridge and highlighted the power of marketing. At the time (late ‘70s) Grado were running ads showing it mounted in a then state of the art SME Series III and a far heavier arm on a PL12D, the strap-line was ‘What a Grado can do in this arm, it can also do in this one…’. It did actually work ok in my clunky big Lenco 75 arm, I don’t remember it jumping warps or anything despite what had to be a compliance mismatch (I didn’t understand such things back then), and it was noticeably better sonically than the M75EJ that was in the deck when I bought it. I bet it would have sounded great in a better arm though. If Grado made cartridges of this quality today I’d be very tempted to try another.
This was me rejecting Linn orthodoxy as I was well aware I’d been sold a pup in the Basik LVV which had rattly bearings and pissed azimuth, so I traded it in for a then totally unfashionable second-hand Audio Technica AT1120 fluid damped low-mass arm and bought the M25FL high compliance cart from Laskeys who were closing them out at about £20. I really liked that combination, it would track anything cleanly, though it demanded very clean records as it tracked at about 1g IIRC.
More rejecting orthodoxy. I just never got on with the K9, it was a bright and lean thing and I didn’t care how much the magazines and dealers tried to convince me otherwise. The Stilton Nag just killed it to my ears, a far bigger, more powerful and involving sound. A great tracker too.
Arguably the best cartridge I’ve ever owned. Hugely dynamic, but it didn’t last long. It seemed to fall off a cliff after about a year and a half becoming rather grainy and hard despite being physically clean and not high hours. Kind of put me off spending a lot of cash on cartridges.
Another one that left a good impression. About half the price of the Lyra, but I suspect no worse (different deck, system and house by this time). One I should mention because I just can’t fault it.
Can’t not mention it. The 103 is flawed, but a classic for good reason. If your musical diet is entirely 50s and 60s jazz then it is real high end as it tracks these short beautifully cut sides perfectly. I kept going back to it time and again, but the end of side tracing on more densely packed music always lets it down. It is what it is.
Where I’ve ended up and will likely stay for the foreseeable future. Tracks anything, works great in my deck/arm, likes my phono stage and reminds me a lot of what I liked so much about that Stilton MP11. It’s just well balanced and doesn’t put a foot wrong. One of those components that draws no attention to itself, and I like that. A lot to spend on an MM, but if you are crafty styluses are not too painful; I paid <£180 landed for my current spare from Japan via eBay (I didn’t get hit by UK customs for some reason).
PS I have never owned a Decca, so they are not on my list, but they have left a huge impression whenever I’ve heard them. Dynamics like no other cartridge. Unbeatable if you like jazz drumming!