MC Cartridge: Elliptical; around 0.5mv; track 1.25-1.75; Affordable

That AT wouldn’t interest me. It’s just too basic a cartridge for a $350-$450
rebuild IMO. I would rather buy the new AT that I linked to than take a chance on that.

IMO you want to look at late 80’s to early 90’s cartridges that fly under the radar
a bit in terms of name recognition that were high end, sold for around $800-$1000 then and have good pedigree. I’m partial to the Accuphase and Monster Alpha Genesis 1000 and 2000 as they have low internal impedances and match well with my phono stage. I rebuilt a couple of MC 20 Supers (and prior to that a few Denon 103R’s) and they were decent, but not in the league of the Accuphase.

I’m optimistic on the SAEC-I have a feeling it will slot somewhere in between the top of the line Hana and the Etsuros following a rebuild and I shouldn’t have much into it.

Some of the Ortofon Kontrapunkts might be worth a shot if you can find a body in
excellent condition for around $100. I’d possibly pay $100 for an Audio Technica Art 7 or 9 with a broken cantilever to take a chance on rebuilding one of those. Or a Denon DLS-1. Stuff like that.

Bear in mind you MUST confirm that both channels are functional when buying cartridges like this. Retipping with a new cantilever/stylus and suspension is one
thing, but attempting to repair broken coils, etc. can become very costly.

The Denon is not a good match with your phono stage-40 ohm internal impedance and fixed 100 ohm load on your phono stage. 

And I am not sure that the Dyna can be repaired. It appears to be a diamond
cantilever model and the cantilever is broken off quite deeply into the body. Others might know better and have an opinion. 

Elliott,

I “dipped my toe” into MC with the AT OC9XEN that hdm recommended. I’m really happy with it and recommend it for lower/mid level TTs. My TT is nothing special - Pro-ject Debut Carbon with the platter upgrade - and I was using an Ortofon 2M Blue that had good clarity and decent soundstage, but was harsh.

The OC9 made a big positive difference. Soundstage is larger with much greater depth, instrument/vocal imaging and separation are a big step up, and I gained a lot of warmth with slightly improved precision over the 2M Blue. The downside (if you can call it a downside) is that I now hear more rumble and noise from the Debut Carbon, so I’m looking to upgrade my TT after fitting the OC9. The cartridge improved the sound a lot, but also really brought out the TT’s limitations to my ears.

Best wishes!

Phasemonger

thanks everyone, learning bit by bit, I'll check out the suggestions.

Steve at VAS said nay on the Dynavector Karat

"It's best not to take a chance on the DV karat cartridges. More often then than not, there is more damage than what you expect".

specs of that Denon 301 seem right in my range

Full specs:
Format: moving coil type
Output voltage: 0.3mV (1kHz 5cm / s in the horizontal direction)
Playback frequency range: 20Hz ~ 60kHz (the graph in the Gramophone review on vinylengine showed it to be dead flat to within about ±1dB up to 45kHz, the maximum frequency they tested it to)
40Ω: output impedance
Matched load: 100Ω or more (transformer 40Ω)
Channel separation: 28dB or more (1kHz)
Channel balance: 1dB or less (1kHz)
Static compliance: 35 × 10 (to the power of) -6cm/dyne
Dynamic compliance: 13 × 10-6cm/dyne (100Hz record measurement)
Needle tip: 0.14 × 0.07 mm square solid diamond special ellipse needle
Proper stylus force: 1.4g ± 0.2g

good first step into MC?

At your budget the Denon DL-301 MKII is a good value. 

It might help if you gave a little more information about your system.  If it's not that resolving, you might not notice a big difference between the carts you have, if it's highly resolving, it might point out some of the shortcomings of the DL-301 MKII.

You should notice more detail and a smoother presentation and probably improved bass with the Denon compared to the Shure.  I have no experience with the AT440ml.

If you really want to get into MC, I'd suggest saving up and get a Hana SL, it's noticeably better than the Denon, but the Denon is a nice way to dip your feet in the water.