It is always a good thing when other cartridges that work well with CD-4 are discovered. At the end of the quad era, when I got into it, I thought that CD-4 records would never be playable because I never heard one that played right. Apparently, in every instance I had heard CD-4, the cartridges was inferior, or the stylus was worn out. I was even told by a friend in the Hi Fi business that the technology was not "there yet". Apparently, there were a lot of cartridge companies that slapped a shibata stylus on their cartridge and declared it to be a CD-4 cart. These carts would light the "radar" light, but played horribly. I bought a brand new Stanton cartridge that was supposed to be a CD-4 cart. It never played right. Then I switched to an Audio Technica AT14SA. A better cart than the Stanton, but by that time, I couldn't get new stylii for it. The one I had was too worn to play CD-4. I finally did find a new "old stock" stylus, It played OK, but it was a fragile performance. The stylus broke before I had gotten a lot out of it. It wasn't until way later, long after I had given up on CD-4, that a parts supplier I was talking to suggested I try the AT331LP. I did buy one from him and I was astounded by it's performance! Finally my CD-4 records were playing clean. Granted, it wasn't perfect, but for most recordings it was good. When the AT331LP was no longer availlable, (their stylii wore out quickly for CD-4, I would get about a half a year if I was lucky, I went through about 6 of them) I decided to try the AT440ML. That cart had also been discontinued, but they had it's replacement, the AT440MLa. I bought one for about $130.00. It's been the best I have ever used, and the stylii last a long, long, time. I'm on stylus number two now, and the first one lasted a good 10 years. The first one would still be good for stereo and matrix quad, if I used separate turntables for that, however, I play everything on one table. So you can probably see why I am so gung ho on this cart. I hope you have a similar experience with the Denon cart. Incidently, on the AT440MLa, Audio Technica never claimed more than 20 Kilohertz high end. Apparently, it will do much more. Maybe I will try the Denon cart someday when I'm feeling like I have some cash to spend, but for now I will stick with what I know works well. At least I don't need a preamp.
The Quadfather