Inexpensive MM Cartridge


Hi All.  I'm helping a friend who has a late 1970's Pioneer PL12 turntable. The manual TT is in good working order, bearing and motor lubed, etc. We need a MM cartridge to mount on the stock S-shaped tonearm.  Budget is up to around $300.  Suggestions please!  Thanks, and Happy Holidays!
peter_s
The elliptical have the advantage of succeeding with less than perfect alignment. That is a reason they are good choice for someone without tools and skills.


Only if you can detect it, if you have overhang gauge given by tonearm manufacturer your alignment is correct on tonearms fixed to TT by the manufacturer (like on the most cheap turntables).  

Many of us it seems have had darn good experiences with that Shure M97xe elliptical. Shure's also has the advantage of the brush, damped for warps and/or springy floors, and to pick up dust prior to the stylus.

The brush invented by Stanton as far as I know. 



The advanced stylus shapes need very careful alignment not only to perform to their increased potential, to avoid groove damage if improperly aligned.

If a person can alight one cartridge then he can align another. If he can't align any cartridge then it's a problem. I do not see any difference in alignment of any cartridge with whatever profile following the manual. 

The alignment must be completely off to damage the records. 



@rauliruegas In Russia, where I'm from, we normally break the nose of a person who's saying in public anything you said in your previous posts. But since you have mental problems and almost everyone on audiogon is aware of your mental problems, I will leave it like that. You're nothing but a p......y, who act like a p......y on public forums and luckily banned on most of them, except this one for some reason. If you want to say anything to me, say it directly to me and I will reply to let people know who you really are.

If you think I'm selling something please post a proof with links.   
@chakster Yes, I do think there is a difference (~40%). 

What I don't know, is what is the effective mass of my S-shaped tonearm on the Pioneer PL-512, which is a from 1978.  Anybody have a clue on this?

BTW chakster - I'd appreciate it if you could remain civil here.  No reason to contaminate a thread with this kind of BS! 
@mijostyn 
¨What could possibly be the advantages over "The Voice" which is high output (2.12 mV), high compliance other then matching high weight tonearms?¨    
¨Market driven¨  check out this  P. Ledermann  interview around minute 56.  https://youtu.be/ul0o7UEqtkA
I'm a big Grado fan, but for this table, given the age and arm mass, I'd tend to lean towards an Audio-Technica, or maybe an Ortofon 2M Red/Blue. Just seems like an appropriate match. 

Back in the day, We sold tons of PL12Ds as our entry level table, and they seemed 'happier' with an A-T than a Grado. The Ortofon VMS20E (ancestor of the 2M Red) was a bit rich for most folks, but worked &  sounded wonderful.

Note: these were not the quietest turntables ever made, but they were dead reliable, even in college student beer-soaked hands. Maybe that's why we favored the A-Ts - as I recall they didn't seem to break cantilevers as often as other carts.