Ortofon Quintet Red: $274.00 (USD) - It was a toss-up between this and the Denon. But since the bulk of my music is jazz bass/guitar, this seemed like a best choice.
No it’s not the best choice at all.
There is NO such thing as a cartridge for certain genre of music, this is a pure snake oil and everyone who telling you "this cartridge is better for this genre or that genre" know nothing about cartridges.
I think you made a bad choice with Quintet Red (Elliptical) and it will not be better than MM (especially those MM with advanced profiles).
You ortofon will be dead/worn after 600 hrs of use (like like any MC with Elliptical tip), not sure how are you gonna fix it then and do you realize the cost of retip ?
Why not just buy a better cartridge with replaceable stylus and advanced profile ?
It's quite often when people trying to help with information about weak point of the cartridge design or styli, but people just buying mediocre cartridges ignoring everything, just because some reviewer said it's great. What a kindergarten.