Turntable Cartridge upgrade question.

@pindac yes I agree, not everything is gold just because it is shiny. I'm big fan of Nelson Pass and his work at Threshold, most of my amps are Pass design. and yes it does sound impressive for old gear, so you don't need big $$ to get big sound 

Hana ML- sounds like a $5000 cartridge. Great MC cartridge and can find at discount sometimes

1. The Hana 1200 cartridges are outstanding for the money. I'd also say that while the Schiit mani 2 is a great phono stage for the money, you’re going to want to upgrade that at some point as well. I ran a Hana ml1200 with a music surroundings nova iii for some time and thought that was a stellar combo for the price. My point is really that at some level, your limiting factor is going to be the phono stage. And I like Schiit a lot. Have a dac from them as well as a headphone amp. And for what you’re currently running, the mani is great, but you’ll definitely want to make a change there at some point

We love the MC Cartridges from Skyanalog. This company has been in the cartridge making business for 25 years and make some well known cartridges for other brands as an OEM supplier. Their prices range from $600 USD to $2800 Here's a new review for their G-3MC but the G-1 and G-2 are in the price bracket.

I recently went thru the phonostage research and purchase process, it can be a blur!  In the end I purchased the black ice audio F159 tube phonostage.  Totally transformed my vinyl playback and then I upgraded to an old school Grace F9 cart with Ruby OTL stylus and wow….(I’ve a vintage Grace tonearm hence the Grace cart was a great match).  I concur that your weak link is definitely that phono stage. 
I honestly never seriously considered the mani.