Reasonable moving coil cartridge

I loved my Denon 103 D. LOMC. Compliant with many arms. Should be in your price range. Look it up.

Several solid recommendations here. Thank you!

One brand that is noticeably absent is Ortofon. 

thanks

In my opinion....

The price range you're suggesting does not have any adequate moving coil cartridges.  Or t least any moving coil cartridges that start to reveal some of the potential of MC carts.  IMO, the real entry-level moving coil cartridge is the Audio Technica OC9/II.  Some higher-priced cartridges are as good, but they are higher-priced.  At their price point, Audio Technica moving coil cartridges seem to be the best in their respective classes.  Many of their top cartridges are based on the OC9 design.  And for good reason.  

I used OC9/II's for years.  Only recently have I moved to Lyra cartridges.  But I still have an OC9/II as a backup.  

@bpoletti, unless I am mistaken jumping from an ATOC9II to Lyra is at least an order of magnitude jump in the price. Does that  jump REALLY justify the sonics ?  Note that at my age of 62, I very much doubt I hear anything over 16k if I am lucky.

Gotta ask a question.  Back in the day, the SME arms were not considered to be highest quality as they had a removable headshell.  Arms with fixed headshells were considered SOTA.

Has this changed over the years?  What arms are considered to be SOTA today?  Back then Linn Sondek was considered the best belt drive table and Technics the best direct drive. although there was a constant back-and-forth as to which drive was "better."

Today?

Cheers!