Cartridge Recommendations

price range. I have the 2M Black and love it with the Sutherland Hubble. It has lots of detail.

The SUT idea is a valid one. It's a pitty the Ortofon M-20 fl super is no longer available on eBay NOS. For $179 this cartridge holds it's own against offerings costing thousands more(I have many LOMCs). If you see one for sale, don't hesitate. It's a MI and I would think it would work great with the 9" VPI arm. William Thakker does still have the NOS replacement styli on eBay. I just bought two so I can use this cartridge for years to come. Provided you could find a cartridge, for your $500 budget you could easily buy the cartridge and a couple replacement styli and be set for years and probably have enough left for some great vinyl.

Bob's Devices responded to my email. He only has 1 SUT available for under 500.00 and it only offers 10db of gain. It won't be enough for my setup. I would have to run the volume control on the preamp way up near 3 o clock.

I am thinking of a Soundsmith Otello or a Dynavector 10 X 5 cartridge. Anyone have experience with either?

The Bob's Devices SUT is a 1:10 stepup. That will stepup your Zu/Denon 103 from .3mv to 3mv. It is listed with 20db of gain, not 10. That should be more than enough. Link is below:

http://www.bobsdevices.com/15095.htm

I would look for a used Silvercore "1 to 10" SUT. They retail for around $650, so a used one should be in your price range.

IMHO, the (2) carts you list above are not as good as what you have.