High end cartridge made in USA?


Anyone know of a high end a'phile MC cartridge that is made in the USA? or for that matter in the UK or anywhere else besides Japan, Holland and maybe Switzerland. Is Clearaudio still made in Germany?
Does the US and the UK not have the manufacturing ability to make quality low output MC's? If so, why are they not?
128x128daveyf
The history of the MC is interesting, however, I do not think it explains the lack of manufacturing today in the US. BTW, I believe the new Linn MC...the Kandid is in fact made in Japan by Lyra. Is there still a UK manufactured MC besides the Decca and the Rega? ( which I presume are still manufactured there)
I am so old that I even remember the questions like : 'is
the German mathematics better than Russian or American?'
Not to mention the physical science. At present I am glad
to see when anything is better made as in Germany. Well I
am 100% sure that Japanese make better carts.
Davey, First, as someone else pointed out, building an MC cartridge is not done by persons making 50 cents an hour. It is done only by an experienced craftsman. Among such persons in the world, only one that I know of lives in the US, and he is Peter Ledermann of Sound Smith. However, for his own good reasons, Peter has chosen to devote himself to Moving Iron (MI) and strain gauge cartridges, rather than to MC cartridges. For what it's worth, MI cartridges have many virtues that one may say make them superior (as a group) to MC cartridges, including lower moving mass. (But I don't want to open that can of worms.) So, if you must have a high end phono cartridge made in the USA, then bite the bullet and take a look at the Sound Smith product line. Grado also make superb "high end" MI cartridges, for that matter. There is no reason why high end MCs cannot be made in the USA, but the simple fact is that they are not, because no one has chosen to make them here.

For an added sense of exclusivity and bigger bucks, you might consider a Sound Smith strain gauge, as well.
Soundsmith makes moving iron and strain gauge cartridges in Peekskill, NY. I've visited the facility with the Connecticut Audio Society and watched them at work. I think the styli may come from Japan but the rest of the cartridge is US made.