Cartridge for Symphonic music .

chactster, I used Pickering X-3000 for about 5 years till they shut down ,THE best I ever had !How could you get one today ??

I will recommend two cartridges in your budget, but neither are a good match for your turntable and tonearm:
1- London Decca Gold, $1,200.  Simply the most revealing cartridge and widest soundstage I have ever heard.  Detailed but not bright, sterile or fatiguing.  Can be used with any MM phono stage but sounds best with specific loading.

2- Any Ortofon SPU, but as an entry I would recommend the SPU #1 w/ either conical or elliptical stylus, under $650.  My favorite on a budget would the Classic GM E MkII, $1,100.  Revealing (not as much as the more expensive versions) but very musical.  Very low output, requires a high gain phono stage or an SUT.  I like the Ortofon ST-80SE w/ SPUs.

Both of these cartridges are "old school" but very modern sounding.  What both of these cartridge families share that almost all new cartridges lack is great separation of individual sounds (so you can hear each instrument) and a big, wide soundstage.

What TT or Arm would you recommend for the Decca Gold ?

Any good turntable could work, assuming it's quiet and doesn't generate a lot of rumble or motor vibration. The usual mantra for the London Decca cartridges is to use heavy, damped unipovot tonearms. These do work well but I have found that arm stiffness is more important than effective mass. Damping and unipivot were necessary for older LD cartridges.

A used Well Tempered turntable and tonearm would be a reasonable place to start. Just make sure you read how to set it up or find a good local tech. The Edwards Audio TT1 SE-J w/ Jelco tonearm is a reasonably priced new turntable that works well.

Here are the tonearms I have used successfully with LD cartridges:
- Fidelity Research FR-64 and 66
- Grace 704/714 tonearms.  Reasonably priced, distinctive looking, work well with the Gold/Super Gold.  Make sure to use damping oil!
- Graham 1.5T (later models would be even better)
- Jelco SA-750D (or the one of the newer models)
- SAEC We-308SX
- VPI JMW 10, mounted on an original VPI Aires 1 deck
- Any good linear tracking tonearm.  The LD cartridges work very well on these arms.  I would try to fins a used Revox B790, B791 or B795 turntable.  Again, you will need someone to set this up who knows these decks.

The ultimate turntable for any Decca or London is the Townshend Audio Rock, the turntable with a damping trough at the headshell end of the pickup arm. As for arms, old favorites include the Zeta, Fidelity Research, Mechanic, and Mission, but any medium-to-high mass arm with great bearings (the cartridge places great demands on them) and a very stiff tube (ditto) will work acceptably well. Art Dudley used a Rega 300 when he tested the cheapest London a few years back, and thought it worked well with the cartridge. I’d say it’s passable, but the cartridge deserves and justifies better. I asked Max Townshend about using the Well Tempered arm with the Rock, and he told me the combination of the damped arm and the damping trough was unpredictable. For any other table, linear-tracking arms work well with the cartridge. Anyone getting a new London should pay the extra for the Decapod, the optional and superior mounting top plate.