MM Cartridge or MC Cartridge

Since your PH3 is suitable for phono cartridges having .25 mV output or higher, I would recommend a MC cart in the .25 to .50 mv range. Don't know your tonearm so I withhold recommending a specific cart. Search the archives if you're interested in veiwing opinions regarding the merits of low output MC carts.

To a large extent it depends on the tonearm.

MC vs MM has been debated here in a number of threads.

IMO, at your price range, the quality and performance of MM cartridges are clearly superior to their MC counterparts.

Check with Soundsmith about repairing your cartridge. The MM/MC debate is endless; the last time I looked a current thread on it was past 3500 posts. I like MC but MM is also good. I have an insane amount of money in audio equipment but have never paid more than $400 for a MC cartridge and yes, I have heard $6000 ones. A favorite of mine is the AT 33 EV at $399.99 from J&R. An internet reviewer also uses it along with a $5000 cartridge and hasn't found much difference between them. You have already found out the best reason for not putting large amounts of money in cartridges ; another is there is a very steep curve in price/performance ratio above a few hundred dollars. I have no doubt that the ultra expensive cartridge sound better but HOW MUCH BETTER? The current Ortofon MMs are also good as are the classic ones sometimes offered; the choice is so wide that being specific is impossible without knowing your taste and system. MC or MM , the choice as pointed out by Bsme85 depends largely on your tone arm as well as the rest of your system.

Agree with Audiofeil.

In my system, which is optimized for LOMC's, I've yet to hear one which costs less than ~$2K significantly outplay several sub-$200 MMs. An LOMC that costs ~$600 would be a waste of money IME. For the same money I could buy 3 superior MM's or one MM and $400 worth of other goodness.

Not saying LOMCs aren't worth having. I listen to one every day. But it costs a fair bit of money and effort to get the performance they're capable of. In addition to $2K+ for a worthy cartridge, you need a more capable tonearm, phono stage and in fact everything.

What really good LOMC's provide that MM's and lesser MC's cannot is very low level detail. That kind of information is easily blocked or distorted by even one problematic link in the chain. There's little point feeding more information into a system that can't reproduce it accurately and it can easily make things worse, as the many threads complaining of "sibilance with my new LOMC" demonstrate. The problem is almost never with the cartridge, it's with some other component that can't handle what the cartridge produces. Tonearms and phono stages are the usual culprits, but the problem can be anywhere.

A high end cartridge should be your last upgrade, not your first. Dealers (unlike Audiofeil) who push these high margin products without regard for customer results don't want to admit this, but it's true.