Reasonable moving coil cartridge


I am looking to purchase a Music Hall 1.5 TT. The selling point being a removable headshell. 

That being said, i am looking for a reasonably priced moving coil cartridge to use on the MH. My preamp is the Bryston 1B- MC. I am not looking to refinance my house. Something in the neighborhood of $200-300 USD. I dont need to worry about a moving coil amplifier as the MC comes with one built in.

thanks
128x128jcipale
Chakster,
Somehow in Lithuania we do have 2 masters who works with cartridges. I do know both in person. And had an opportunity to listen of some of their works. One of them is my friend and once he did prototype in two versions one nude 0,5 mil conical another is contact line. Manufacturer was the same Namiki as I do recall from my memories. And CL version was inferior from the first shot. So it's not so easy to get into. It's like a cuisine in which you are extracting taste with different additives. 

And if you'll look into low compliance and LOMC cartridges sometimes cuisine leads conical profile. Perfect example is Denon DL103 with 0.65 mil conical. Weakness of Denon DL 103 isn't the conical tip itself but as it mass product it has huge variation of quality from sample to sample. Some of these are really good ones, some of them are bad ones. All is the matter of taste, like in cuisine.

As about lifetime of tip you are right. But better to check is it nude polished one or bonded one, it gives better quality idea. I won't change 0.5 mil nude conical into 0.2x0,7 elliptical bonded in any case.
Chackster is right, your budget, go for MM with advanced stylus shape.

I had an existing Shure body, so I added a new Stylus: Jico SAS stylus shape/boron cantilever. Nice MM with decently high 3.0 mV output. You could look at finding a vintage cartridge body (with or without stylus), and replace the stylus. With stylus? don’t plan on it, but you might get lucky

I also have and very much like Audio Technica 440ml, Advanced MicroLine shape. I agree, currently available Audio Technica VM540ML is a great choice, only $250. 4.0 mV output, user replaceable stylus.

https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/cartridges/e7a3d4bc8b248b64/index.html

Cantilever is aluminum, a reasonable compromise to get in budget
So after further review, and having a bit of extra money in my pocket from some unused cash bonuses from work, I am going with the following:
  • Fluance RT84 turntable: $449 (USD) - I couldn’t justify spending an extra $50USD on the acrylic platter.
  • Ortofon Quintet Red: $274.00 (USD) - It was a toss-up between this and the Denon. But since the bulk of my music is jazz bass/guitar, this seemed like a best choice.
  • Marantz CD6006 CD: $465.00 (USD) - Sadly, this is the only piece of gear available locally.

Total cost: $1188.00
The Fluance comes with an Ortofon Blue 2M cartridge (MM Elliptical). Ebay will be a good place to recoup about $100.00
Now all I need to do is figure out how to hide the boxes from the CFO when they arrive on the doorstep. The things we do for our obsession.
My advice. 
Get the Soundsmith Otello. This guy knows how to build a cartridge! You get US made hand built for mass market price!
If you want another high value cartridge and don't care about US made, get the AT740ML or AT750SH. I can testify that are very good. 
I wouldn't bother with an MC cartridge at this price point. Don't get hung up on architecture.  Just SQ for the $$$


The Sumiko Blue Point #2 got the "Gruvy Award" from "Analog Planet" and garnered this positive review:
"One of the least expensive moving coils I know of. Its high output (2.5mV) means it’s MM phono stage compatible but will give you a taste of what moving coil cartridges are all about. It features an elliptical stylus and tracks between 1.6 and 2.0 grams. Lots of detail, power and punch. Better for rock than for classical."

The Blue Point series was very popular some years ago. List price is ~$450 but doubtless it’s available for less money and brand new, too!