Lower end Soundsmith cartridges vs others in same price range?

As you know Peter at SoundSmith likes Grace MM cartridges and you can read about it here, he’s servicing them for others and even produced his own replacement styli for them. It is safe to buy one of these, the best are F14 and LEVEL II models. If you prize his work he could always repair those vintage Grace beauties. I am a big fan of Grace (but i use only original styli with Grace pick-ups).

SoundSmith is MI, go for it, at least you don't have to bother with re-tipping, you can get SoundSmith with user replaceable stylus or Peter will replace it for you for the lowest possible cost as the manufacturer.  

It will never happen with MC if you will not ship them to the manufacturer, the cost will be much higher. 

Some bad info here. Yes Soundsmith is MI, but the replacement is factory not user.

You're right, B&O cartridges manufactured by SoundSmith and some SoundSmith cartridges looks like the stylus is user replaceable, but they are not. ANYWAY it's factory replaced for very low cost by the manufacturer, this is a clear benefit compared to MC cartridges from some other brands.

I just checked the SoundSmith site and quickly realized all old models are gone and replaced with new design (that looks a bit weird, sorry). 

An old design is better to my eyes (just my personal preferences), especially this one made for OMA.  

But there are many more great MM or MI cartridges in this world (or even LOMC) new or old.  

If you enjoyed reading Art Dudley you would probably enjoy Jeff too.

thanks 

Who is Jeff Day and why it’s important to use what he’s using ?
Schick designed for low compliance cartridges like SPU and DL103, it can be used with other cartridges too (i owner schick "12) but it’s not the best tonearm, my EPA-100 was so much better than Schick and i sold the schick later. I must say it was very elegant tonearm on my turntable, the design is very nice.

The OP is using Technics 1200GR

It is clear for me that for MM/MI Technics EPA-100 "10.5 tonearm is better than Schick "12

Nagaoka MP-200 has Boron cantilever.

SoundSmith Otello (if that was the lowest price SS) has aluminum cantilever.

Both cartridges comes with elliptical stylus.

SoundSmith is a mid compliance (22cu at 10Hz and can be ordered with high compliance 28cu too) while the Nagaoka compliance is much lower (7.2 @100Hz is about 12.3 cu @10Hz ! )

If they are about $400 then i have to say that a much better cartridges can be found for nearly the same price under $500 if you will look for a vintage MM or MI with better stylus profile like Stereohedron (Pickering XSV/4000) for example or maybe Grado XTZ MI with its Twin Tip for example (if you're lucky).