A pragmatic view of cartridge expenses / many questions

Audioquest4life, I am not particularly fond of tonearms with removable head shells (except the 4 Points) and changing cartridges is a PITA. So , for most of my life with one turntable and tonearm I kept two cartridges, my current favorite and my previous current favorite in case something happened to the first current favorite. I always managed to get a new cartridge before any stylus wore out perhaps every three years or so and never sent a cartridge out for retipping and I doubt I ever will.
With two tables and two or more tonearms it becomes a different situation. It becomes easier to compare cartridges but with multiple cartridges running it becomes even less likely that you will wear one out.
With clean static free records and a properly set up arm styli can go a very long ways. Megabuck cartridges cost megabucks to retip which is most definitely a rip off IMHO. As an example a Clearaudio Charisma costs $1200 to retip. The Clearaudio Goldfinger costs $9600 to retip. They have exactly the same cantilever and stylus. Who would buy a Goldfinger retipped by some budget retipper? Not me. But, people who can afford a $16,000 cartridge usually have several and the likelihood they would wear one out diminishes rapidly.
As for utilization, certain cartridges are better with certain music. I have learned with a recent purchase that modern MM cartridges excel at Rock while MC cartridges do better with string quartets. From now on I will have one of each type Qed up ready to use. I do not have a MC cartridge that is as aggressive as the Clearaudio Charisma I recently purchased and playing classical most would think it was a MC cartridge. Very pleased with this. So much so that I suspect it will curtail my spending on expensive MC cartridges which I am dead sure are aggressively overpriced. Next I might try a Soundsmith cartridge to see what that is about. 

Oh and pay no attention to Chakster raving on about old cartridges. He only listens to Elvis:)

Audioquest4life, my 911s will only get 8000 miles out of rear Cup 2S 
For every day use Michelin Sport 4S are wonderful. I get 20,000 miles on those and there is no difference in handling off track. For track use get P Zero Trofeo Rs and really burn up the money. $2000/day:) I just saw my first midengined Corvette. I'm sure it is the performance value of the century but according to recent press it feels like a Jeep and worse it is at least to my eyes huge and ugly. Ferrari still corners the market on the best looking cars. The new Gordon Murry car looks nice. Mclarens are not bad but not up to Ferrari in the looks department. My ultimate car remains the Singer 911 followed by the Eagle GT. 

@chakster 

“The price often has nothing to do with the quality. After using some overpriced modern cartridges at $3-5k range I am happy to get back to the basics and keep using some NOS samples of the best high-end from the 80s (MM,MI and MC) that cost me much less in price and sound better.”
I am tracking with you on that point for sure. My first high end cartridge, the original Benz LP, was a revelation into great sounding cartridge instruments. I heard the Koetsu Onyx and Jade and thought the Benz LP was not giving up much in sound quality, if any at all, compared to these stone body cartridges. There was a distinct difference in sound and the stones seemed to exhume a naturalness that the Benz does provide, but at a lower level. But, I always thought that if one day I could afford it, I would probably get a stone body Koetsu because of the revelatory listening experience I heard at the time. Today, there are so many cartridges at varying price points that compete with far higher price cartridges, that I think it’s a great time to be into records. A previous comment about downward trickle effect and better technologies allowing for better sound at lower prices is so true. What 80s cartridges have you compared with higher priced ones? I have had my share of Shur, Pickering, ADC, Audio Technica, Denon, as I was growing up and they are still part of my everyday living room setup. 

@audioquest4life 

You can compare any overpriced Koetsu to the Fidelity-Research FR-7fz yourself. You can also compare Koetsu to Miyabi Standard if you can find one, but not to Swiss made Benz. 

Compare Japanese cartridges to some other Japanese cartridges.  

The fact that Koetsu still in business does not make this cartridge any better, because the Yoshiaki Sugano is not making them anymore. He is the one who made the name and reputation of Koetsu, but Garrott Brothers in Australia pointed out how purely they were made and always fixed them for the original owners.

If you want to know more about modern high-end business model you have to read Mr. Andreoli's comments (he's another legend in business, trained by Garrott Brothers long time ago). 

I will tell again to everyone that buying a cartridges like Koetsu top models for insane prices is not exactly what audiophiles must do to enjoy the music. This is only a part of the luxury life of some very rich people. 

If you want to find the best sounding cartridges you don't have to pay insane prices! The key is the knowledge and personal experience. 

  What 80s cartridges have you compared with higher priced ones? I have had my share of Shure, Pickering, ADC, Audio Technica, Denon, as I was growing up and they are still part of my everyday living room setup.

I have compares so many, but let me point you to some of the best without making this list so long:

**Moving Magnet:

AT-ML180 OCC 
Grace LEVEL II BR/MR
Grace F14 Excellent (this is exact name of the model).
Pickering XLZ-7500 (low impedance version with extremely low output).
Pickering XSV-5000 
Victor X1II 

**Moving Coil:

Miyabi Standard
Ortofon MC2000
Grace Asakura One 
Victor MC-L10
Ikeda 9C III
FR-7fz 


... I could add many more even for much lover price that all of these above. I have all these cartridges now in NOS or MINT condition, and i'm not referring to my memories (from 30 years ago). I am listening my system with those cartridges now in 2020. And i will never buy any modern high-end cartridge for $3-5k again - this is a rip-off (or a ticket to sect of elitists who often know nothing about cartridges, but got money to pay the bills believing that anything new and modern in audio business is the best, but it's not true).