Vinyl noob needs help with cartridge

What kind of phono stage do you have?

The 2M Black and 2M Bronze are moving magnet carts with a pretty high output, (5mv).

The Zu/Denon 103 is a very low output moving coil (.3mv).

If you have the gain, the Zu/Denon is a wonderful cart. I have one on my Oracle Delphi MKIV and love it.

If you have only a MM stage, the Ortofon 2M Black is great. I have one of those also on a different table. I upgraded from a 2M Bronze and it was a worthwhile investment, although the Bronze was no slouch.

The Audio Technica AT150MLX is another excellent MM cartridge.  

I know that several members really like the newer Audio Technica MC carts, like the AT33 and the OC9/III, but again you need the gain for these.  The Audio Technica ART9 is supposed to be really nice also, but sells for around $1000.

Thanks for the feedback.  I am pulling my old audible illusions pre out of mothballs if I get a mm cart.  If I go the zu denon route I will probably order the Vincent poh8.  I will move up the food chain later and if  this whole vinyl,revival is all I am hoping that it is I will move up to a better cart.  I am just trying very hard to not break the bank at this point.

As a general rule of thumb spend as much on cartridge as you have on phono pre.  In your price range and Ortofon would work.  MC cartridges are usually more expensive than MM cartridges.

i'm not big fan of very low output cartridges. simply they don't make sense to me. it's an urge of either using ultra-high gain phono preamp(preferred) or step-up transformer(extra unnecessary expense -- i'm cheap freak). ultra-high gain phono preamps(over 60dB of gain) may also be either very expensive or noisier than moderate gain ones by nature. i also like in general performance of moving coil cartridges better than mm. therefore i'd recommend medium or high output moving coil cartridges within .5 to 3 mV. on my list it would be pioneer 6mc, Denon DL160.

If you like Ortofon look for vintage Ortofon M20 FL Super and you will be on heaven! It’s a top quality cartridge with Fine Line stylus. Don’t buy modern MM cartridges - they are overpriced, low quality and easily beats by top vintage MMs from the 70s/80s (you can still find NOS). If you want to learn more about it simply read Raul’s thread here on audiogon. If you can find any from his list it will be a top performer for reasonable price.

Any vintage MM can be retiped/recantilevered and improved by Axel in Germany (he works fast and charge less than others like Soundsmith etc).

You don’t need MC cartridge to start with, proper modern MC will cost you $3000 (and each 1500 hrs it must be retipped), but proper MM will cost only $300 and you can change stylus. Vintage MC are cheaper, but worn out and the limit of enjoyable listening experience is probably 200 hrs (then must be retipped). Add step-up transformer or head amp to the cost of low output MC and the budged will jump up to crazy amount. Think about the rest of your system. Start with MM cartridge and save money for something else, you will not lose anything! 

P.S. I would NEVER buy Denon 103, even Denon 107 MM is better. Both will be creamed by any MM/MI from Raul’s list, i’ve tried many of them and many others experienced agon members aproved them too.