They are the same cartridges which were sold under the Glanz brand in Europe, made by Mitachi in Japan. I haven't heard the Astatics, but their specs seem worse for some reason than the Glanz models. The Glanz range was very broad and I don't know the differences between all of them, they had several ranges of these "moving flux" models with different 'levels' (according to stylus shape), but all the cartridge bodies seem physically identical and styli are interchangeable. Anyway the bottom line is they are excellent cartridges, and I'm assuming the Astatics sound pretty much the same. I have a nude elliptical model and a two of the bottom of the line bonded spherical. They retain mostly the same sound signature, but the sphericals (which I think would be close to MF-400) are a bit more closed off in the ultimate highs and just lack some of the refinement. But even they are very enjoyable cartridges. I think the bottom models also had slightly higher inductance, but I'm not 100% on that without looking it up, but if I recall correctly they have 150mH vs. 100mH of the upper range models. Both are low figures for a high output MM. The better Glanz models are probably closest to moving coils I've heard in a high output MM in terms of natural openess, but they sound noticeably warmer than any MC I've heard, which might be a good or bad thing depending on your system. But the bottom line is they sound very natural and effortless to my ears, with no nasty peaks.
It's too bad original styli are so scarce (basically unobtanium), only the MF-400 styli seem to pop up from time to time - and there are no after market replacements available that I know of. Excellent cartridges anyway.
