The VM540ML is amazing. It is truly another class compared to my previous ATVM95ML. After playing minutes, hour, days i can conclude that the cart is truly performer. Voices & instruments are noticeable. Mid & high tones are pure and dynamic. The cart produces less surface noise during inter track gaps and less than perfect records. Stereo separation and precision up to innermost grooves remained unchanged. Prices may have increased but VM540ML is still no match in its price range compared with other MM carts in the market. You will be able to hear the difference in sound when using VM540ML. Enjoy the music.

Bought for a Crosley C200 which looks like a AT-120 just all plastic and missing a few features.First thing, I bought the cartridge by itself thinking I could save myself $50 bucks by mounting it myself. I have never done it before and all I had were some printed out 2 point protractors and youtube videos to show me how. Over the course of 2 frustrating days I tried to figure out stuff like overhang and where on the headshell the darn thing goes. I kept getting a 20% Right channel being lower inbalance all the time. Almost wanted to send it back. Then i remembered the packaging came with a plastic fake headshell to which the cartridge was attached. All the pictures online I could find of the thing already mounted on a proper headshell showed it in in the same ... MoreBought for a Crosley C200 which looks like a AT-120 just all plastic and missing a few features.First thing, I bought the cartridge by itself thinking I could save myself $50 bucks by mounting it myself. I have never done it before and all I had were some printed out 2 point protractors and youtube videos to show me how. Over the course of 2 frustrating days I tried to figure out stuff like overhang and where on the headshell the darn thing goes. I kept getting a 20% Right channel being lower inbalance all the time. Almost wanted to send it back. Then i remembered the packaging came with a plastic fake headshell to which the cartridge was attached. All the pictures online I could find of the thing already mounted on a proper headshell showed it in in the same exact position it came mounted on the plastic headshell. I just placed the plastic headshell over the current headshell with the VM540, and put the screws dead center over where it was mounted. Lucky the plastic headshell has a hole and a peg were the screws go so there is no guess work, after I figured that out, I just aligned it using the protractor and the imbalance was almost corrected, but still there. Just to trouble shoot I increased the tracking force from 2.0g to 2.5 and then to 3.0. I wanted to be fancy and have a low tracking cartridge, but it appears this also helped to fix the imbalance. Probably my entry level table showing some of its limits. Seemed my turntable needed a higher tracking force to get that left channel going sufficiently. Hope this helps and saves someone some time. I am never again mounting a cartridge myself again. After i bought the headshell I think I saved like $20 overall. What was i thinking? Always get the mounted option or pay someone to do it. 2 days of frustration and i probably scratched a record or two in the process. Thank me later.

Since the M97Xe is no longer an option, I'd say the VM540ML represents the current price to performance king amongst MM cartridges. One can find a lot said about this cartridge. So I'll add the two things that stand out to know ahead of time. 1) The mounting screws provided do not work well. When one places the screw heads facing down and the nuts on the top of the headshell, there isn't any room to even get the supplied flat head screw driver squarely on the screwheads. The red body actually blocks the screwheads partially. Its very strange. 2) This thing REQUIRES low capacitance. The recommended range is 100 - 200 pF. I started out around 320 pF and there was way too much high frequency emphasis. I took a frequency response measurement and I had +10dB above 6Khz. ... MoreSince the M97Xe is no longer an option, I'd say the VM540ML represents the current price to performance king amongst MM cartridges. One can find a lot said about this cartridge. So I'll add the two things that stand out to know ahead of time. 1) The mounting screws provided do not work well. When one places the screw heads facing down and the nuts on the top of the headshell, there isn't any room to even get the supplied flat head screw driver squarely on the screwheads. The red body actually blocks the screwheads partially. Its very strange. 2) This thing REQUIRES low capacitance. The recommended range is 100 - 200 pF. I started out around 320 pF and there was way too much high frequency emphasis. I took a frequency response measurement and I had +10dB above 6Khz. You need a phono preamp with no more than 100pF of capacitance and low pF RCA cables and tonearm wire.I still prefer the M97Xe over this, but I do consider it a worthy replacement.