Santa arrived a little early...
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It sounds amazing. We listened to 6 albums yesterday. Each one revealing things that I had never heard before. The soundstage is very wide and deep. Extending beyond the physical placement of the speakers. As it should be.
The Grado cartridge/stylus is designed and manufactured in the US as well. It was an optional $150 upgrade. Yes, it is in a Maple, wood housing. It's the newest member of Grado's Timbre line of moving coil phono cartridges. Their first "affordable" ($275) moving coil, wooden cartridge. Grado has a cartridge that looks very similar called the Epoch 3, yet it costs $12,000.00 Yep! freaking 12k for a turntable cartridge. lol
Very happy with the purchase. I will be doing a lot of listening and comparisons between the SOL and the Technics SL-1200 MK5.