Best Cartridge for $1000-$1350?

Look at the vinyl engine.com. They have tools to calculate whether the cartridge will be compatible with your tonearm and phono preamp.

Another approach is to work with a dealer, if you live in location with a good hi fi shop, who will help you with compatibility matching, and hopefully provide you with explanations along the way.

Hard to replace a good dealer with random advice from an online forum. You will get a lot of opinions here, some will be helpful and some not so much.

I am not familiar with your tonearm, but the website says it is suitable for a MC cartridge. No information on tonearm effective mass.

Best Regards,

Jim Perry

deanshias

OK I looked up your phono preamp which has max gain of 60 db. That means generally that you should use a MC cartridge with about .5 mv output.

The Shelter 501 (.4 mv) would be an OK match, and I think you would like the sound (I have a Shelter 901).

The Dynavector 17d3 with output of .3 mv (I have one of these also) might be marginal with output that low.

The ART 9 output is OK at .5 mv, but based on reviews (i have not heard this cartridge) might not match the sound you want.

You might also want to look at reviews of the Hana cartridge. I have not heard it, but the reviews are good and it falls in the low end of your price range.

You might also talk to a local dealer if there is one in your area. You might be able to hear a few cartridges which makes for the best decision.