Fourwnds I wish I could have afforded a cartridge that good at your age. Actually there were no cartridges that good then! Just get the HI FI News test record. It has tracks for both lateral and vertical resonance. For the PC 7 just add weight until you get the resonance down between 8 and 12 Hz. The lower in that range the better. You can add weight with longer screws putting nuts on the screw before you screw them in so the nuts are on top of the head shell (dorky looking) or you can get cartridge weights which are pads the fit under the cartridge(better looking.) You can adjust the weight by sheering off the pads at the corners with heavy scissors. Getting this right has a big payback in bass and tracking ability.
MC suggestions
I have long been a Grado fan. Currently running a Statement Reference v2. I love it, but. I auditioned the Ortofon Quintet Black and the Dyna 17d3 and the Benz Glider and while each were excellent in their way, the overall feeling, despite being faster and transparent left me wanting, I was happy enough with my Grado. Id like to take another crack at this now. What I am looking for at this point and I hope you guys can make some suggestions, is a cleaner, and more live sound. This combined with a nice sense of space and width to the soundstage. Is this asking a lot in my price range which is 2.5k(ish)? I am of the opinion after spending sometime trying to figure this out, that an el34 based tube amp combined with the Grado cart are just too similar in voicing(warm). I had hope that running a ss phono stage combined with the low output statement would be just the synergy. It definitely moved the needle in the right direction and I could live happily if I didn't think I could push it a little farther in the detail direction without losing what I love about the Grado sound. That is primarily it is not brittle, its natural sounding, nice soundstage all around. Perhaps if I had solid state amplification it would be a synergistic match made in heaven. Some carts I have been thinking about are VAS, Miyajima, Dyna(I did really like the 10x5 I listened to at one point). Not to rule out Lyra but would be worried about the thinness I've read about from some users. Grado fans seem a little few and far between and I wonder if there are previous fans who have moved on. Maybe I just need to have a couple carts around and their is no one right cart. I have hesitated pursuing a cart change because my system has been tuned to Grado's sound but if I can get close with another company making MC's that wouldn't call for recalibrating my rig that much would be great. Thanks for reading and sorry to be so long winded.