Choice of Phono Cartridges

+1 on dover's comment above

tt upgrade is best bet

try a well tempered labs or an oracle

Choosing a cartridge you must take in count an effective mass of your tonearm. Some cartridges will not work properly on your current tonearm because of the tonearm mass and cartridge compliance miss match.

Even if you can find inexpensive MC cartridge within your price range this is not final. You will have more problems with low output MC in a mediocre system. Another problem is a cost of factory re-tip (and you will have to ship your cartridge away for a long time).

Of course you can upgrade your turntable, but for every turntable you need a cartridge. You can easily start with a cartridge and if it’s a mid compliance cartridge then it is more or less universal for modern tonearms (they are mid mass).

In your situation I think MM or MI is a better choice within your price range. If you will add some NOS cartridges in your list you will get much more (such as exotic cantilevers for example) in the same price range. This is where some nice vintage MM are the best. I don’t know the mass of your tonearm (you have to check it) but a mid compliance MM cartridges from Japanese brand Victor in X1II series are superb and you will find a lot of great feedbacks from other users on audiogon about them!

Regarding new MM cartridge you can add Australian made Garrott Brothers p77i in the list.

I agree with others, stick with MM now so you can stick with mid or higher compliance cartridges for your existing arm, get a nice MM now, and later, when you move to a new TT, new arm, make sure the arm is good for mid/high compliance cartridge (likely).

sticking with MM, and Audio Technica

I have and love the sound of AT440ml microline stylus on aluminum shaft, currently using it every day on my office system.

AT540ml is the current version, microline/aluminum shaft/plastic body

IF you simply upgrade your existing cartridge’s stylus, it would be equivalent to 540ml

AT740ml is same as 540 except it is a cast aluminum body

https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/cartridges/09079f798b312248/index.html

the next logical step is a lighter/stiffer shaft like boron, ....
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don't forget the improved traceability of advanced stylus shapes, follow and stay in the grooves.

How many MM cartridges even with Boron Rod cantilever anyone can find today and for what price? 

It's amazing that SONY made one with Boron Pipe (The XL-50 MM) long time ago in the 80's. 

Back in the days SONY established Sony Sound Tec Corporation to produce phono cartridges. Not every equipment manufacturer can make a phono cartridge, but the Sony Sound Tec Corp combining all the passion and knowledge has released some very interesting models in the early 80's. The XL-50 is one of two finest Moving Magnet cartridges from SONY.

Very special features are as follows:
The Jointless delta-type core;
Boron Pipe cantilever and nude Super Elliptical Diamond;
A screw holds the stylus holder firmly in place;
Distortion caused by flex is virtually eliminated;
Cup-shaped damper and tension wire!

This lightweight and high compliance cartridge is designed for low mass tonearms. Loading recommended by the manufacturer is from 47k Ohm to 100k Ohm. Cartridge output is 2.0 mV. Frequency response is pretty wide: 10Hz - 50000Hz! The price for XL-50 was ¥25000 in 1981.

Boron Pipe cantilever is nothing but a grown crystal of Pure Boron into a pipe configuration (wow). A tip mounting hole made using a laser beam. This technology is no longer available, instead of ultra lightweight PIPE configuration you can get only heavier Boron ROD configuration from cantilever manufacturers nowadays. Boron PIPE is associated ONLY with vintage High-End cartridges (MM or MC).  XL-50 and this is an excellent MM cartridge with exotic cantilever!  

chackster,

thanks for telling us about the difference between vintage Boron PIPE and currently produced Boron ROD.

your advice for deciding on modern cartridge?

advanced tip on aluminum, or go for advanced tip on advanced shaft material?

Having had beryllium and broken it (by breathing in it’s direction) I instinctively go for boron, not wanting anything more brittle and not wanting to pay more for something I will then worry too much about.