Agree with Audiofeil. If you're going to upgrade a vinyl front end, upgrade the table, arm and phono stage before spending more than a few hundred dollars on a cartridge.
I use a $5K LOMC, but it's on a $7K table and $4K arm playing through an $8K phono stage. I also have a little $150 MM and it sounds superb on this rig (though not quite as superb as the LOMC of course). OTOH, whenever I try "cheaping out" on any of the other three components (table, arm, phono), the sound goes downhill VERY fast.
IME costly cartridges on inexpensive rigs are not the best use of resources. They are too revealing of system flaws to play their best in less than optimal environments. (And if they're not super revealing, what did you spend all the money for?)
