It was the beginning of a new friendship with someone who already had a great sounding apartment sized system, younger, just about to buy a TT. He found me here.
After listening here, he gave me a lot of trust, (buying all new from a local dealer was his initial plan). It's not for everyone: this involved finding/buying Vintage, risking shipping damage, solving minor issues on Vintage tonearms without the help of a local dealer (we did need help with one tonearm's lifter and the other's locking lever from VAS), and cartridges: new; custom from VAS; and used Vintage with new stylus. He knew about VAS before we met.
We go to VAS together, shop for LPs here and there, listen at each other's places. Due to Covid I have not mixed the 4 new friends I have gained thru the forum, I suppose I could put something together when it gets a bit warmer with my local friends.
When it sounds great, all the trials and tribulations disappear. He told me how glad he is that he didn't proceed with the original package. All in, he saved some money which was not the goal, but we got him 'better', and 'more' for less.
I 'liked' his system, it absolutely came alive, to I 'love' his system, when he upgraded his old AR tube preamp, those speakers are better than I realized, and his Vinyl sounds better than his streaming, and he has a true Mono cartridge ready to go because he collects both Stereo and Mono LPs, primarily jazz.
Everyone who hears the difference here understands that a mono cartridge's lack of response to ANY vertical movement means a little/lot/whole lotta reduced noise and increase in distinction of individual instruments and voices.
He has the tools, and steadier hands than me, but he still prefers I supervise his work doing the cartridge alignments, which is why I say, it's also a matter of confidence, repeated practice, repeated success.
Another younger friend just bought a starter TT with shure's V95 body with interchangeable/upgradable stylus. At his level a MM with automatically calibrated/aligned cartridge body maintains success. He will move up when his collection of LP's grows, he is thrilled with his re-entry into vinyl.
The advanced Vintage MM I own with user replaceable stylus: V15Vx body with Jico SAS on boron/Shure MM 97xe damped brush, new cantilever/stylus rebuilt by VAS/recently purchased AT MM 160ml; AT MM 150ml and Shure MM V15V-P Microline on beryllium cantilevers are sounding terrific.
They reveal it's a fallacy to simply think MC is a definite step up from MM.
I mounted my new to me JVC Victor UA-7082 mid length arm last night, now I will begin comparative listening, come up with a plan involving 'equal play' distributing the wear to the ones that have no obvious weakness.
I could go on forever .....