Turntable Cartridge upgrade question.

We love the MC Cartridges from Skyanalog. This company has been in the cartridge making business for 25 years and make some well known cartridges for other brands as an OEM supplier. Their prices range from $600 USD to $2800 Here's a new review for their G-3MC but the G-1 and G-2 are in the price bracket.

I recently went thru the phonostage research and purchase process, it can be a blur!  In the end I purchased the black ice audio F159 tube phonostage.  Totally transformed my vinyl playback and then I upgraded to an old school Grace F9 cart with Ruby OTL stylus and wow….(I’ve a vintage Grace tonearm hence the Grace cart was a great match).  I concur that your weak link is definitely that phono stage. 
I honestly never seriously considered the mani.

Another vote for the HANA ML.  Wonderful through the whole spectrum and great bass.  Please follow the other suggestions for upgrading your phone stage as you will reap HUGE benefits from an upgrade.  I've used Pro-ject, the same Schitt you have and settled on the PS Audio Stellar Phono Preamplifier.

@ssg308 In relation to Pass.

I encouraged a very adept EE friend to look at the Pass Korg B1.

In the end they built a basic model and the demo’ given to the local HiFi Group was quite impressive. Shortly after a 3 Box Version ( VC - Circuit - PS) was produced using Black Gate Cap’s and a improved Volume Control, this was extremely impressive but also timely.

A member of the HiFi Group had invested heavily in the Vinyl Front End and New EAR Power Amp’s.

A Pre Amp was required, in a line of Pre Amps where approx’ £15K of Pre’s were present and one was approx’ £5K in value, which the EAR Pre.

After all the toing and throwing between Amp's, the KB1 was put on in both build guises, the system owner today has the KB1 in use for a few years with today a Khozmo VC and carefully introduced Boutique Cap's, the original and few upgrades are still close to £600 as the overall build cost.

This Pre is working extremely well and is not wanted to be changed, it sits in the Company of other ancillaries costing close to £50K in total. 

Within the Local HiFi Group there are now Five versions of KB1's in use, and I am having a Balanced design produced as well.

Another vote for the Hana ML I think it is a lot of cart for the money.

I've moved on from the Hana (sold it for $700 in a couple of days after 18 mths use) but what has remained constant is the GoldNote PS-10 and PSU-10. I'm using the balanced output which is great if your amp supports it.

I've asked a couple of reputable high-end dealers (both carry Nagra as an example) about upgrading the GoldNote and the consensus was I'd need to spend double the money for a relatively small gain in SQ, and of course you could start with just the PS and add the LPS later. 

Just my 2 cents.