Under $200 and the single greatest value - for - the - dollar component in the history of audio. Yeah, it gives up some high frequency extension to pricier cartridges, and it's not going to give you holographic imaging, but it has a verisimilitude that's very seductive. Tremendous bass slam and drive too. There's a reason this cartridge has been in continuous production for over 40 years. Note that your phono stage must be capable of handling a low output MC cartridge to use it.
Best $500 cartridge? Dynavector DV-20XH?
I'm looking to upgrade from my Grado Gold cartridge, its about a year old, and i've heard good things about the Dynavector DV-20X 2.5mv output. I have a killer channel islands VPP-1 phono preamp with VAC-1 power supply and custom DH Labs IEC cable. the cartridge is going on a Project carbon arm on a modded Project XPression table that's also a year old. Any suggestions other than Dynavector? What would I gain from upgrading to the $500 range?