I grabbed this carbon fideltiy P mount along with one of the fancy LP Tunes T4P REFERENCE SERIES VS carts with the shibata tip to compare it against. Both brand new from LP tunes. All I can say is I can't tell any diffrerences between them with my ears in my room. I run a couple technics linear tables for them and with good vinyl the sound reproduction to me is cd quality. It is insane how good the Carbon fidelity cart/ stylus sounds. I would highly suspect there are differences sonically between the Carbon stylus and the expensive Shibata stylus however I lack any tools to measure this and with both being identical to my ears I know once they wear out I will buy replacement Carbon Styluses for both! Don't sleep on this cartridge it sounds phenomenal on technics linear trackers, and likley any of the p mount linear trackers from the 80's. SL-J2, SL-QL15, SL-6 here for reference.