Which Mono Cartridge at around $1,300.00?

Thanks Pryso and point well taken. Of course subjectivity is limiting in the sense that I am unable to purchase 30 cartridges (excuse the hyperbole) audition them all out by comparison and then choose the one that I like best. I cannot even begin to tell you how many hours I had spent reading reviews and specifications before deciding on which amplifier and speakers to purchase. Maybe I'm guilty of trying to dodge grunt work by posting on this site but there is a wealth of information from various perspectives to be had here. In the long term, my intuition tells me to aim for one of the Lyra mono cartridges but I cannot live with this ME+ for that long. Some of the Grado wood bodied MI mono cartridges have gotten rave reviews for their price range and in this case, I would choose one of the low output cartridges (Output at 1KHz 5CM/sec. 0.5mV). But then there are other options, such as the Ortofon SPU MC mono for example. Now it seems as if my approach is to compare the advantages and disadvantages of MM, MI, MC etc... within a somewhat narrow window of affordability knowing that my plan is yet to upgrade once again at some later point in time.

The AT 33 ocassionaly shows up on J&R for $400; I use one myself. Both high gain phono stages and SUTs can work well; Bob's Devices SUT is quite reasonable and sounds very good. Which is better? I have no idea; my Basis Exclusive and Naim Superline are high gain MC only; I did try turning the Basis gain down all the way and using the SUT but this did not work well. On the other hand the SUT works well with MM phono stages. The Basis Exclusive offers up to 72 db of gain; even if the smaller Basis offers less it should work with almost any MC; Basis makes good phono stages.

I concur, I like my Mini Basis and what's it has done so far. ASR makes a nice amplifier also. I'll look at the Audio Technica 33 but it doesn't seem as though 2nd hand mono cartridges present themselves whenever I'm looking. I just take it for granted that they're somewhat of a rare breed to begin with. Being candid, I don't want to spend money on a SUT. I'd first take that money and put a tube circuit board in my MD 90 tuner.

I have two mono MC cartridges–Denon DL102and Ortofon SPU mono–and both have sufficient output for any normal MM phono stage. Of the two, I find the Ortofon has a naturalness that the Denon can't quite match, but the Denon is cheaper and satisfying in it's own right. And the Denon can be mounted on your Thorens arm, and the Ortofon cannot unless you decouple it from its headshell.

Decouple the cartridge you say, yikes! I do have a friend who worked with a McIntosh dealer back in the day who has all kinds of weird stories concerning things like splitting head shells, attaching cartridges with soldered pot metal, running tonearm wire along the top of the tonearm, ... Anyway, things I have no knowledge or familiarity with.