At what price point do I run into diminishing returns on an MC Cartridge?

Or something else at this price point or below that! In any case, your choice will strongly depend on what tonearm you use. I believe the Miyajima likes one with a high mass. For around half the price of the Miyajima you can get a Phasemation PP-300, which is a serious overachiever at its price. But again, a fairly high mass tonearm is required.

If you dare to go 'previously used', you can get away with even less. I have several cartridges that cost me less than $1000 that can easily compete with current top level systems. Don't let anyone tell you those MC's at $10k are on a quality level previously unattainable. It just ain't so. Halcro has devoted a whole thread on this, called 'Hear my cartridges'. Very educational!

Halcro certainly doesn't need me in his defense, but this was not the point of his investigation if I understand him correctly. Of course comparing cartridges through such limited digital playback method is not representative of their sound under ideal circumstances, but it does make very clear that there is no generic quality difference between vintage and modern systems.

This has also been my experience and I believe it is something chakster agrees with as well. But of course the caveat will always be system synergy, without which even the best and most ludicrously priced cartridges will likely disappoint.

So to add to your study here are some more suggestions: Dynavector Karat Nova 13D, Victor MC-L1000, Ikeda 9 Rex, Sony XL-88D, Audiocraft AC-03 (currently MY Sonic Lab), Ortofon MC-5000/7500 and Miyabi Standard (or Mark Levinson MLC-1 and Krell KC-100/200 equivalents). These are all top level systems from the 20th century that can still be found - with a little perserverence and/or luck - for $2000 or less.

I have compared these carts in my own system against my long time reference, Van den Hul Colibri XPW African Blackwood Grenadille. This is one of those Uber cartridges, being the former top model with platinum coils that retailed for $8k, years before the introduction of the current Stradivarius Signature model.

They all sound terrific and on the same high level, just with different flavours. Finding the right one(s) and making some discoveries along the way has been a fascinating journey for me. If this sounds interesting to you, you're in for quite a ride. Have fun!

@chakster,

Yes, this was also designed by Matsudeira San. The specs are very similar, although the latest MY Sonic Lab models have somewhat higher output and even lower impedance. Before his tenure with Audiocraft he was responsible for the Entre EC-3, another great sounding cart. More recently he also designed the Air Tight PC-1 series.

No, I only have first hand experience with the MC-5000. But I do understand that this whole series was quite outstanding, so I should have mentioned the MC-2000 and 3000 as well. The main difference between models was the choice of stylus/cantilever (Replicant100 stylus and sapphire cantilever in the case of the MC-5000). The MC-7500 is still on my wantlist....

Lewm, it seems there are more differences between the MC'4 digit' Ortofon's than I anticipated. The MC5000 has 0.15mV output. This is the lowest output cartridge in my arsenal, but it's still three times the 0.05mV of your MC2000!

Even the MC5000 is very picky on how it's driven. It's my only cartridge that doesn't work well with SUT's, although Ortofon apparently designed a SUT specifically for this series. I have two SUT's (but not that Ortofon), both with 30dB gain and in both cases there's considerably hum. But it's totally silent and very much 'alive' with Boulder 1008 phono amp with 70dB gain. So I can imagine the MC2000 will be even more demanding to drive properly. But if you manage to do that, I'm sure the results are spectacular.