How to choose a cartridge?

My Broadest Experience is with Ortofon.

I have heard the Flagship Models and their Trickle Down Technology Models since the Millennium.

There is a family trait where a Sonic is detectable and the variation from one Cart to another is also detectable.

I like a very clean cut Bass Note with no overhang, it has to be perceived as having a decay, this allows my Mid and Upper Mid's to be projected and have a improved presence.

To achieve this Balance, I had a Ortofon Cart' built with the description of my needs guiding the design.

The Built Cart has been compared to other Ortofon Cart's produced over the last 20 Years and I am not wanting another Ortofon at present.

I do have one other Ortofon as a Donor Cart' to go for a rebuild, but there is no rush.

The good thing about Cart's is that many that are sought after are from a range within a Brand, and because of this there is going to be a family trait that can be detected.

If you visit the link I have made available for Juergen, there is a vast range of Cart's that have been used and assessments offered.  

The Link is to one of the many available Juergen's reviews of Cartridges, it has reasonable description to help see where the Cart's share and differ in the performance on offer.

Note: this is not a Cart' recommendation.

I don't have a experience with a extensive range of Cart's.

I have owned approx' 10 Cart's from MM, Ceramic, LOMC and HOMC, and am familiar with Three Cart's used regularly on my system, the main one in use being an Ortofon Rebuild, the lesser used ones being a low usage hours Ortofon Kontrapunkt b and a low usage hours Hana SL.  

I am not too impressed with the Hana SL, it does not present in a manner that captures my real interest, but it is a reasonable Cart' for the asking price.

I have been quite impressed by the reintroduction and use of a Audio Technica AT-150MLX, this might be a place where I end up in the not too distant future. 

I have heard the Len Gregory Moving Iron in the past when I was accumulating experiences of Cart's and was not too taken to this design in the system it was demonstrated in. I believe the Len Gregory has a Grado as the Donor Model.

In a demonstration carried out on a TT > Tonearm with a detachable headshell, a range of Ortofon Cart's and derivatives of the Ortofon Cart's were all mounted into the same headshell types and compared to each other.

The Cart's between them had a FGS, FG 80 and a Ogura Vital Stylus.

At the end of the demonstrations it was a shared thought between the attendees that the idea that the stylus only was responsible for the noticed differences would be an inaccurate assessment, it was agreed that the most likely influence was the overall assembly and used materials for the devices that were the responsible for producing the differences being detected.