About to derail our wonderful music appreciation thread, I do like the MP 500, but I think it is a little bit overpriced, or perhaps maybe a better way to say it would be that there are other cartridges that are as good or better at that price point. I like the Hana SL a lot. Current prices are a little higher than the MP 500, but the Clearaudio virtuoso wood is also a really nice cartridge although I don't like the way the cantilever sticks out way in front of the body. I have snapped it off before.
One thing to be aware of is that according to Nagaoka the stylus is only good for 150 to 200 hours. There's also a lot of discussion that says it should last hundreds of hours. That might just be marketing-speak trying to sell more styli. I'm not sure how many hours mine has on it, but it has to be close to a hundred and fifty or more.
I wonder if you can get some halfway good deals on Nagaoka buying direct from Japan. I bought mine from cdjapan, but I don't think they sell them anymore. There used to be a guy named Kazu who sold them through a website called audio Kazu. I think he only sells the stylus now.
