Audio-Technica Got It Right With the VM95 Cartridges
There are many reviews of the VM95 series of Audio-Technica cartridges, many of them positive, even effusive . I have been biased by the description of AT carts as "bright-sounding" hence have avoided them as my system/room tends to be unforgiving of bright playback. Having finally tried the green AT-VM95E elliptical, I must say that this is not a bright cart, actually falling into the warm side of neutral. Quiet a well-balanced sound. I won't repeat all the reviews, but one thing that impressed me immediately was the relatively quiet background (coming from a Shure M55E with Jico stylus). Compared to the Shure, the AT is less mid-forward and more extended in the higher frequencies. The VM95 cartridge has a practical advantage -- one can easily swap the stylus to any of the other models, from the conical VM95C all the way to microline VM95ML and shibata VM95SH models. It was a matter of seconds to switch to the blue VM95C. The conical is more rounded at the lower freq