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Factor in my four K&K acoustics, mandolin, dobro and banjo and for me at least it makes a lot of sense to spend the money on the preamp rather than individual pickup upgrades.
Trading feedback here
You don't need to spend a fortune these days either.
I can use pretty much anything except magnetic pickups, as no matter how sophisticated they sound they always have the feel of a clean electric guitar to me.
Is a Piezo a natural sound? Whereas magnet is that clicky metal thinner sound?
The problem with piezo undersaddle transducers is that they don't produce the correct phase signal - an acoustic guitar top generates the peak of its audio waveform when the string is moving the bridge the fastest, in the middle of its travel. A piezo pickup generates its peak when the string is producing the most (or least) pressure on the saddle, which is at the ends of its travel - this is also why it produces an exaggerated transient 'spikiness' which is very characteristic of USTs, because the pick attack produces very high saddle pressure.
The problem with a magnetic is that it picks up the wrong part of the string vibration - in the middle, rather than at the end where the sound is transferred to the body on an acoustic. That means that the harmonic mix is very different, and it also varies depending on where on the fingerboard you're playing. Soundhole pickups tend to be about at the midpoint of the string when you're playing at around the 12th fret, so they sound worst there. But in fact, a magnetic pickup does produce the peak signal when the string is moving fastest, so is correct in that respect.
A body sensor, even if it's a piezo type (like the K&K) produces the correct harmonic balance, phase and transient response, at least in theory - Taylor also did that with the first version of the Expression System, using body-mounted magnetic inertia sensors.
Mixing a magnetic and a piezo UST can also produce good results, since they each have some right and some wrong characteristics and they tend to cancel each other out to some extent.
But nothing ever sounds as natural as just sticking a mic in front of the guitar... even internal mics don't.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The objective (at least to my mind) is to get a loud and clear sound that approximates the sound of an acoustic guitar - and equally importantly is not prone to feedback.
In my experience I have found that the best sound I ever achieved was interestingly from this instrument:
https://i.imgur.com/ekZZulT.jpg
The only problem is that people don't realise it's an acoustic guitar and they ask you to play classic rock songs :-(
Then I installed an LR Baggs Anthem in this instrument which also sounds lovely. One bonus is the fact that I've managed to create a 'phantom power' system where 9v DC is supplied to the preamp via a TRS cable. No sound hole - doesn't feed back...
https://i.imgur.com/D5Kx3Er.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VWKR5b4.jpg
IMO there comes a point after which it’s simpler and far more productive to concentrate on playing and getting the best possible sound from the guitar. Like electric guitarists who play the amp, not just the guitar - I think it's important even as an acoustic guitarist to play the whole system, not just the guitar.
For finger-picking - piezo USTs sound just fine.
Add a (internal or external) microphone or an Aura (or whatever outboard processor you like) and you can sound pretty decent even while strumming.
Just my 2c.
Rant over...
The Anthem one looks like it is installed inside the guitar whereas the M1 can be screwed over the soundhole. If I'm correct does the Anthem (or perhaps both) have a blend control thing so you use the mic effect?
The Lyric (under-bridge mic on its own) - I didn't like at all.
With the Anthem - the microphone handles only eye higher frequency sounds.
Off the top of my head, everything below 250Hz is handled by the Element UST.
The net result is rather nice sounding, even for someone as OCD as me.
I completely agree that with a pickup, it’s best just to get a good sound and not worry about whether it’s accurate or not - so I’ve gone back to magnetics.
Piezo USTs are still useful as a source for full guitar/mic modelling like the Fishman Aura, but not for actual amplified signal. Although they are much better if mixed with a magnetic, like jaymenon’s Tele - I had the older thinline version which was very good too.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The guitar:
https://i.imgur.com/D5Kx3Er.jpg