I sort of agree with dolph, but IMO the description of $700+ MC cartridges should be changed from "decent" to "very good." That, IMO is were cartridges begin to get very serious. But that of course is far outside the OP's budget, unless he buys used - a prospect many cringe at, but I bought my Glider M2 lightly used, and as long as you're careful about whom and where you buy it from, you should be ok. Mine was exactly as advertised, in like new condition, apparently used for 50-70 hours or so, and about 50% less than the new price.
If, through some miracle, the OP can stretch his budget to include something like the Benz ACE (the first and perhaps only strong recommendation I make at that specific price point), he should take a look at the medium output model, which dolph mentioned in his post. My Glider is the medium output version, .8mV, and I absolutely love it. This way you kind of get the best of both worlds: the output, and therefore moving mass, is very low, but no so extreme that you need to have an extremely high quality and low noise phono preamp in order to really enjoy the cartridge.
One more thing: dolph mentioned the upper-end Goldring cartridges. I don't know if the models he noted are anything like the Eroica (which was one of their better MC cartridges), but I've spent a lot of time listening to the Eroica in the last eight years, and I'm honestly not too crazy about it. It is a very natural sounding cartridge, which is good, but too smooth and polite for my taste.
...
My opinion on the Eroica is that it's not very detailed nor dynamic.
There's a lot of things the "Eroica is not".
And then it only works in very light weight arms.
This is why I pulled out exactly those Goldring cartridges worth mentioning.
There is a reason to focus on the cartridge in the stereo set-up.
Transducers are those spots that gives the most difference for each cent you spend.
Transducers are at any spot in the set-up where electronic signals are made from mechanical movements (cartridge), magnetic fields (tape heads), accoustic waves (microphones) or vice versa; electronic signals are made into accoustic waves (speakers).
Difference is not always for the better.
It's up to you, the owner of the set-up, to make proper research to ensure that this difference comes out to the better.
The DL 301 mkI or mkII is very neutral.
it misses the the rythm from the bigger sister; the "rock-cartridge", DL 304.
It also misses the soundstage.
The midrange is without attack at all.
Furthermore, it has a very vulnerable cantilever.
And it has this "Denon sound" that I, and quite a few other people that has accepted that great cartridges demands a bit more money, find annoyingly colouring.
I would be able accept the sound in the 301 for a while, given the circumstance that the stereo set-up wouldn't be able to produce much better.
Except only few music lovers will have a stereo like that.
But why even bother..........................?
It is a low budget cartridge and with Denon cartridges you barely get what you pay for.
You won't even get proper value for the money, buying the Denon DL-1000A or the DLS1, although Denon really tried to get rid of the colouring "Denon-Sound" with these two.
"dolph"
