MP150 or MP200

You can buy modern replacement styli for vintage cartridges that use modern synthetic rubbers that will last for decades out side. Styli back from the day are probably bad by now. Not only that but quality control was pretty poor back then.

@mijostin you can’t buy modern replacement for most of the best MM cartridges from the past because those type of cantilevers are NOT available anymore. But NOS originals are still available (but rare). If all post about weakness of rubber is nothing buy a fantasy, I have practically tested so many vintage MM (the best ones, not crap).

Instead you’re talking about rubber parts, do you think it’s more important ?

After years of contributing on this forum I have posted thousands of pictures and articles, but people like you ignoring everything and continue to post nonsense.

-Ever heard about Boron PIPE or Beryllium PIPE cantilevers ?

-Ever tried a ceramic cantilevers (also pipe) ?

-Sapphire or Ruby that are completely different from what SoundSmith can offer today ?

-Gold-Plated Beryllium maybe?

-Even aluminum cantilevers from Japan is not what you can buy today.

You will never find any of those great exotic cantilevers today, no matter how much you can pay, even on $20 000 MC you will never find a Beryllium anymore (production of this material was restricted long time ago), no more Boron Pipe (too expensive to made) ...

Quality control was MUCH higher and those cartridges made in JAPAN !
This country was way ahead of USA or Europe in technology.

This is the reason why the best MM are from JAPAN and they are extraordinary good even today because of the quality control and very high competition between the giants of the industry.

Even cartridge design (visually) was much better than all those ugly looking modern cartridges. Headshell integrated carts like this one is superior design and engineering. I can't post all of them here now, but there are so many amazing cartridges made in analog era, not in digital era. 

Chak
Do not take things so personally.
Did you not see the line in my post where I said you likely had some stellar carts I had not tried?
And I am really happy they work out for you so well.
Please share the same sentiments for those among us where they do not work out as well.
Thanks and stay safe

I'm pretty sure we are going overboard on the subject of new vs vintage in the context of phono cartridges . There is always a middle ground where we can all be happy .

I remember my first true highend cartridge , a Supex 901+ . It was a high output Moving Coil cartridge which sounded wounderful 
 Even today when you see them being sold at ebay , audiogon or USaudiomart they don't have to wait for long to be sold but they sell for quite a bit of money . And they are vintage . I bought mine at 1979 , cost me 225.00 at that time . Had it connected to the phonostage of a Audionics by Oregon BT2 phonostage and that into a pair of Dynaco Mark 6 mono block power amps .

What I am trying to say is when a piece of equipment is good , it is good , period . Take a well performing pair of Dalquist DQ10 speaker and I'm pretty sure they can stand their ground against any modern speaker design with the latest and greatest computer animated design 

So don't disregard something just because it was design 20 or 30 years ago . Same thing applies to vintage cartridges . I remember Harry Pearson of the Absolute Sound use to say that the midrange of the ADC MM cartridges is the best he has heard in his life . Apply the same to the midrange of the Marantz 8B tube amp

I'm kinda a newbie here but I have the mp-200 and I loved it... until I discovered the world of MC carts.  If you're looking for more detail and refinement, save up and go for a HOMC.  Maybe a Hana S or lower end Dynavector.  I really dug the balanced and warm way the mp-200 presented the music but in terms of detail and realism, there's no contest.  To be fair, the MC cart I got to replace the Nag was around $700 but it was worth it!  On another topic the tracking ability of a Shibata or Microline stylus is way better, especially if you listen to classical music with it's large dynamic shifts.  Of course you can get an MM with said styli but I'd make the jump to a decent MC.

As far as I remember, an MP200 has a boron cantilever, which pushes it up to a much better product classification. It is worth the extra.