My next stop is to try a Grado because I love the house sound of the headphones and had Grado cartridges growing up, or go with a Hana SL and see if i saves my RP6.I agree about the grado cart’s - very nice
However - You might want to rethink a Grado on a Rega - I had one for about a week - they can hum and the hum gets louder as the cart gets closer to the motor as the album plays.
Having said that, my experience was back n the 90’s - so things on the Rega motor front or even the Grado’s may have changed,
Here’s a 2008 Audiokarma posting...
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-dreaded-grado-hum-on-my-rega-planar-3.188070/
My cart is a Soundsmith modified Denon DL 103 - with the Optimized Countour Contact Line stylus and ruby cantilever, is superb - but it does have a shim to add a little mass for optimum Rega compatibility..
You do need to use a mirror’d protractor for percise alignment on higher resolving stylus types to get the best out of it - but an elyptical stylus
might be OK using a paper protractor.
The standard 103 is very good and great value at only $230, but the SS version (add another $400) extracts the most delicate nuances from vinyl.
Regards - steve