The Essence is representative of other cartridges in it's price range. I assume you are using VPI's unipivot arm? If you are the Concept and Essence are both pretty stiff at 9 um/mN. The Talisman is the real bargain in the Clearaudio line and it has a compliance of 15um/mN which would work better with your arm. The Taliman tends to be on the bright side but it does tend to mellow a bit with perhaps 50 hrs on the clock. It has exactly the same motor as the higher up MCs in the line excepting the Goldfinger which is different. If you are a high energy music fan you might want to see if they will offer you a deal on the Charisma, their top of the line MM cartridge. It is more neutral than the Talisman and boy is it punchy. It is the best rock and roll cartridge I have ever heard. It would take a current mode phono stage and a very expensive low impedance MC to match it's dynamic force. The Talisman will have a little more detail but the Charisma is more dynamic. Check out the reviews.