New cartridge for MMF 5

Thank you all for your help. I bought this TT used one year ago and I used it A LOT without ever being particularly impressed by its sound. The thing is that there's no comparison btw the Cd player (that I'm very pleased with) and the TT. The cd player wins. And that's not what I want. I know that my TT is what it is, and I do want to upgrade one day. But I can't now. So, I'll go with Herbie's mat, which I just ordered. I'll look for the cones too (silly question: do I need to install them?). I was also thinking about getting a wall shelf rack. It seems like the most popular and budget shelf here on audiogon is the Target, but both Needledoctor and Music direct say that there are problems with availability. The only one I can find is the Apollo but it's made of glass and I have read somewhere that's not ideal. Any suggestion? As for the cartridge, I'd like to try something different from the Goldring and I thought the MMF 5 was good enough to support nice cartridges. Does it make sense to think of a $600 cartridge as an investment? I would already have a nice cartridge to start with whenever I decided to get a better table. Or not?

Thank you again,
Fra

Hello, here's an update about my MMF 5: I bought Herbie's mat and was happy to find out that it does make a HUGE difference. I definitely recommend it to other MMF 5 owners (if there are still some around).

Also, I built one of those 'ikea lack rack' that you can read about here on Audiogon. I have to say that I completely changed opinion about my turntable. The sound is warm, the soundstage has become wider, the bass sounds smooth, and I can finally do justice to my vinyls (not sure this sentence works in english :)

Finally, I 'pulled the trigger' (this seems quite a popular expression in the audiophile world) on an Aurum Beta S MK II (I found a good deal, so I did not pay its retail price). I still don't have it installed, hope to do it tomorrow and will let you know how it works.

Saki,

sorry for replying late to your post. I'm not very good with reviews, but I can tell that the Aurum Beta worked great in every aspect of the sound quality of my table. It is especially good with piano recordings. There is no comparison with the sound I had with the stock Goldring. I should mention that the cartridge is only one of the upgrades my table had, the others being Herbie's mat, a wall mounted shelf, and a Music Hall cruise control 2.0