High end cartridge made in USA?

Viridian, He held the patent but they were never produced for the mass market,if so that was over 50 years ago. What other USA brand made the MC cartridge? I am really curious,thanks!

I believe oustanding Argent MC cartridges are all US made in the 80s, but they are very rare and hard to find nowadays. Argent made diamond, ruby and sapphire cantilever versions. The company also made acoustic room lens before they disappeared from the market. Low compliance, high output model Argent MC500HS with sapphire cantilever sounds amazing, i wish i could put my hands on some other argent cartridges. And would be nice if anyone else here could share experience with Argent MC cartridges (reviews, catalogs, personal experience).

Why not ? Same reason little is made in USA, average American sees little point is working for 50 cents an hour.

Looking at the prices of some/most of the high end MC's from Japan, Switzerland and Holland, I seriously doubt that the manufacturer's are working for 50 cents an hour.

Ortofon invented the moving coil cartridge, but Grado invented and patented the *stereo* moving coil cartridge. Similarly, Beyer Dynamic invented headphones, but Koss invented stereo headphones. Columbia invented the LP; RCA invented the stereo LP.

Although Grado does not make MC carts, they *do* make very high quality low output moving iron cartridges in their wood bodied Statement series. In America, New York City, in fact.

Reviewers generally considered the Grado Statement series to be overachievers, so I'm betting their top line $3500 Statement Statement is a seriously good cartridge, and although moving iron, has only 0.5mV output. The coils have fewer windings to lower inductance and internal resistance (2 ohms).