New Cartridge advice

I have several Denon DDs, 59L, 60L, 61F, 47F. I have swapped a Grado RS with a micro line retip and a Stanton 881 with vivid line and a finer retip that kept its vtf at 1 or less on the 47F back and forth. And a retipped micro line Denon 303 and the Grado on the 60L, and a Nagaoka 500MP and a Benz on the 61F. Of all these combos I like the 303 on the 60 the best, but both the 881 retip (I like better than Vivid but Vivid is punchier and still good) and the Grado on the 47  sound very good but different. I also have a retipped micro line 301, a 301 Mkii, and a 302 I have tried. Of these I like the 301 best but not as much as the 303. The Benz is also good (used on 59, with bells and whistles arm) but I found even better on a higher end belt TT/Jelco 12"arm I have.  The point is, a better cart than the ones you have will sound different, and most likely better than what you have--up to a point (you may have to play the Darlington's HF jumpers). If you can find a 301, 303, 304, 305 for a low price and spend the 400 or so for the retip you will max out the sound. Anything a lot more $$$ on these tables I have is diminishing returns.

@markmoskow 

Thank you for the specific information on what works with the Denon tables.. That's exactly the type of information I was looking for.

Thanks to that responded. Has anyone tried the Hana SL with a similar model Denon?

Denon mc cartridges are still the best bang -for- buck mc cartridges. I have several, including a 304. In stock form they sound excellent! The Hana SL (Shibata stylus) sounds excellent too but at $700 is more expensive. 

@markmoskow 

My Denon Dl-62 has both the straight and s-curved tonearms. Which would give better results with the Denon 301MK2? In the manual, it looks like the straight arm is for lighter carts. I do like the head shell mounting system on the S tonearm.

If your Q-damping is working well it may not matter. In general, the Denon 3-series carts are light and go well with lighter tonearms, like the short one, while the S might work better with heavier carts, but the Q-damping should make them relatively resonance neutral. One of my original 301s, the lightest of them all, is on a very light unipivot (Magenpan Unitrac) on a Denon 55k. The 103 is heavier than the 3-series carts, and you could try it on the S. The Hana is light like the Denon 3-series should sound fine I would guess. On these Q-damped tables/arms (I have a JVC, similar or the same tech to Denon, I believe), to my old ears everything sounds good.