Best all-around cartridge for 500.00 new

Tom, i recently picked up a Denon that had never been used for $100. One of my buddies found it and a few other cartridges from a vinyl "addict" overseas and snagged it for me. He had used one previously and thought it was a phenomenal bargain for the money. As you mentioned though, it is a low output cartridge and does require more gain to perform optimally.

If you're looking for a high output MM type, try a Stanton 881S Mk II. It will smoke a Shure in terms of overall reproduction and musicality and costs measurably less. All the V15 type cartridges suffer from a non-linear distortion problem that an honest reviewer would mention ( some do ). The Stanton has a much shorter and more rigid cantilever. This results in faster tip speed, more detail due to a shorter path to the motor assembly and less distortion due to the cantilever not flexing. The frequency response is more neutral and there is less "grundge" in the upper mids and treble without sounding near as "closed in". The 881 will also track BETTER than the Shure on high amplitude passages with a lot of vertical deflection. A good source for the 881S Mk II is Kevin at KAB Electro-Acoustics. Sean
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I am currently using a Grado Sonata (low output version, less prone to hum) with my Linn LP12 and find it great with vocals and acoustic music. However, it is not the most detailed or dynamic. If you can stretch your budget or get a discount buy a Benz Glider as this cartridge does almost everything quite well. I've heard and read many good things about the Denon (as recommended in the above post) and Shelter cartridges. I understand why you said "new" as buying a used cartridge is an iffy proposition.

I have had quite a few cartridges including a Benz Glider, the Dynavector DV20XH is a great cartridge and works well with the Rega. I had mine on an Origin Live modified RB250.
By the way, I have one up for auction.

I cannot recommend a classic Denon DL-103 (NOT current production!) highly enough for use in the Rega tables. Outstanding performance and a gol-darned steal. Only caveat as previously mentioned is that it is an MC with just 300uV output, so you need a low-noise, high gain phono stage to use with it. The EAR 834P (with NOS tubes) makes for an outstanding combination. Just my 2 cents...

Is the Denon 103D the black one with the conical stylus sold back in the mid to late seventies? It is nice unit but I am amazed the rubber suspension parts have aged that well even unused in the box. Its a smoooth number. Sean the Shure(I am confident you have herd every version) sounded better in my table than I could get the Grado Platinum VPI version to and it couldn't track with bloodhounds, no $300-500 cartridge is perfect. They don't make my favorite cartridge any more and I couldn't afford it anyway if they did, the ones still out there are decrepid by now. The Tallasman Virtuoso Boron, but I am confident you have some comment about that, perhaps a Pickering "smokes it". Wish I knew everything too!