Started loving vinyl decades ago, started with a basic Stanton STR8-80 with a terrible DJ-style stylus.
Finally decades ago a friend of the family got me hooked on good phono cartridges. Had a couple of Ortofon MM’s but were never that impressed, they picked up on all the dirt, dust & scratches. Reading online opinions and reviews went for my first good turntable (Pro-Ject Perspective) and my first good stylus was the Sumiko BluePoint Evo. That eventually died, so went a little crazy and went for a Sumiko Blackbird. This thing blew my mind & I absolutely loved it, sadly a drink friend broke that, I was close to knocking him out it cost so much. Then a couple of years ago I went for a Sumiko Starling but this really felt like a downgrade. It sounded great, but gone was this incredible soundstage of the Blackbird, everything on the Starling felt… mechanical, like everything was static and not breathing and moving around you like the BlackBird. And the Blackbird, if used on clean, good quality vinyl almost completely eliminated all the grey noise.
Well, I just managed to break the stylus on the Starling when trying to delicately clean the turntable. Here’s the problem. When I purchased the Blackbird all those years ago it was about £850 UK. Now that it’s out of production it has shot up to £1,400! Almost double the price!
Looking for advice. Do I take the hit and get another Blackbird at the massively inflated price, or for under £1,200 is there an absolute best in class MC (high output) stylus that can go toe to toe with the Blackbird?
Massively appreciate any suggestions here. Thank you.