3 Top Cartridges Picks

Well, my favourites :
Miyabi ( Alnico, the original, not the 47 Lab version )
Allaerts MC2

There is and will be always some hype about cartridges, the marketing is a real special chapter ( When I remember right, the Magic Diamond is from Swiss and I heard, it is based on a Denon DL103 - regardless of it's qualities -, the Cardas Heart is a regular Benz Reference with a few drilled holes in the wood body...)
Anyway, fun counts ....

I have owned various vandenhul grasshoppers, Clearaudios, a Lyra Helicon and most recently a Lyra Titan. At least in my Rockport, the Titan has been a very nice match and a rather significant improvement over the Helicon and I would highly recommend it to you. One further thought, matching the cartridge to the tonearm is really important. If the mass and compliance of the cartridge is a mismatch for the mass of the tonearm or the tonearm does not do a good job of dissapating any energy sent by the cartridge into the arm, you will not be happy with the end result. Another way of saying this is that there are some combinations which are very synergistic, for instance the Colibri in a Rockport arm. I would focus on trying to identify what cartridges work optimally with your particular set up.

So many choices all dependent on type of music you listen to, what you are using it on, the tonearm particularly of course and what sound you like, detailed, musical verging on coloured. For me I remember:
Dynavector D17, not expensive, but only .17mv
Ortofon Kontapunkt B, again great value
My current favourite Koetsu Rosewood Signature.
None as expensive as those others have recommended and I am sure not as good, but for me in a price range I can see as realistic.