Whatever you end up doing, I hope it suits you well. I happen to disagree with this:
The answer is: pretty much any good brand and quality MC outperforms good quality MM.
- as I have some MI cartridges that will give any MC a run for their money (London Deccas). But money isn't the best way of judging quality: I have in the last few days revisited a pair of $5k cartridges, both MI, which I can swap in to replace a $1k MP-500. And I ended up wondering why I bothered to buy more SME 309 headshells for them. The Grado Statement 3 is perhaps being libelled by me. It has no character, and perhaps that is a desirable characteristic. The Soundsmith Sussurro is livelier, more detailed, but suffers from a lack of bass when run through my VAS SUT. The MP-500 sounds better than either of them. Now I write this with my ear corrupted by Benz Micro LP-S warmth. That has become important to me, and I keep wondering if I should use my mono-converted Ruby 3 for everything (I don't hear stereo having only one ear). At the end of it all, as long as we like what we hear, we should be satisfied.