Dear @fjn04 : I think that today HO cartridges inside your price range are The Nagaoka MP-500 and agree with @mijostyn for the Goldring 1042. The stylus tip of the Goldring is the same that uses Ortofon in its 9K LOMC cartridges, the Replicant 100. !
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS, R. I forgot, the top of the line MM in Clearaudio catalog is truly fine too.
You can't go wrong with either one. Good luck. |
I am a long-time Grado fan, but they sometimes hum, resisting all kinds of grounding schemes. Even 50 years ago Grado cartridges were simply incompatible with some turntables, the AR being one. Hana EH $450 SH $750 or MH $1200 for an elliptical, Shibata, or microline stylus. I have an SH running on a VPI JMW Memorial 10.5" arm, whose lower tracing error and dial-in arm height make the otherwise very critical setup of any Shibata or Microline stylus a lot easier. While the gain is a little lower than a MM cartridge, the sound is otherwise as close to flawless as I have experienced. My one complaint is the lack of tapped mounting holes, easily remedied by carefully running a 4-40 tap through the existing smooth holes. For the money, or even a lot more, the Hana line are exceptional cartridges. |
