New cartridge $500 range

Hana SH, Goldring 1042, Nagaoka MP300, come to mind, all high outputs so no worries about extra transformers or cables or whatever. Even if you decide to upgrade your phono stage you would still have a good cartridge.

G

Goldring 1042 is an excellent cartridge. I use it with Nottingham Spacedeck/Spacearm and Acoustech PH-1 phono stage. Whatever I upgrade in the system I can clearly hear the change. Even minor things like putting one half inch Walker isolation disc near the turntable motor. 

Excellent cartridge is the one with extended range on both ends, decent stylus profile for lowest possible record wear and superb sound quality (and very long life span over 1200 hrs), user replaceable stylus is a must have. Mid or high compliance for superb trackability.

Most of the modern MM cartridges are dull (rolled off highs is a common problem) and this is the reason why, compared to modern MM, an MC with exaggerated high is preferable for most of the users.

An MM with crystal clear treble and deep bass is very hard to find!

Some of the best vintage MM have completely different sound presentation with silky smooth highs, those carts are addictive. Hard to say why, most of them have an exotic cantilevers made of unobtainable materials (beryllium, boron pipe). Those carts are from an era when mastertape was a reference, not a digital file.

When an MM or MI is something special then today's manufacturers don’t hesitate to charge $12k for it. And for $500 they normally offer something very basic and nothing special.

@chakster 

"When an MM or MI is something special then today's manufacturers don’t hesitate to charge $12k for it. And for $500 they normally offer something very basic and nothing special."

I do not think that is true. The MM market will generally not support those prices. Actually I should say the high output market will not tolerate those prices. The most expensive High output cartridge I know of is The Voice by Soundsmith for $3000. Next would be the Charisma by Clearaudio for $2000.  The AT VM740ML is an excellent cartridge for $330. The Goldring 1042 is another excellent cartridge well worth $600.

Audio Note MM is also expensive, I think it is actually based on Goldring.
If I wanted to upgrade the Goldring 1042 I would probably go with either Audionote or perhaps one of those vintage that chakster talks about. 
I just see no reason to jump to $3k+ MC.