Vinyl woes / cartridge upgrade

 Audio technica at440mla, Ortofon Red? I think I prefer new. Anybody with 1219 experience would like to share an opinion?  

I have about $300 into it so far between purchase and professional tune-up. I figure I could drop another $100 - $200 to see what a new cartridge can do for me.

If you like new then it is no problem to buy vintage NOS (which is like new), right ? Audio-Technica is much better with Beryllium cantilevers, but this material is not available today, restricted for use for all manufacturers. Audio-Technica AT-ML150 OCC with Beryllium Cantilever and MicroLine stylus is something to look for. 

Ortofon M20FL Super with FineLine diamond is another great and cheap MM. 

Stanton 881s and Pickering XSV-3000 (both with Stereohedron styli) cartridges are superb too and you will hardly find anything better withing your price range.  

Turntable does not matter, the mass of the tonearm is important. Look for MM or MI the cartridges from the same era (70's/80s) for your vintage turntable. 

I would never add anything between a signal from your cartridge/phonostage and your amp. You don't even have a good cartridge yet, but already thinking about some strange devices designed for people with digital background, why? Analog playback is cartridge - phonostage - amp - speakers and nothing else in between. It was like that forever. Cartridge is one of the most important component, phono stage is very important too, if you don't have top quality cartridge and phonostage do not add any devices like Sweet Vinyl Sugercube SC-1 etc. Analog chain must be very simple and very short.

If you want unnatural clean sound then just use digital.   

None of the mentioned cartridges have a proper stylus profile for correct reproduction of vinyl with less distortion and wider frequency response, those entry level Grado and Nagaoka have an Elliptical or even Conical profiles. The life span of such diamonds is very short (300-500 hrs) compared to Audio-Technica MicroLine that can be used for 1200 hrs or even longer.

Choosing an MM/MI cartridge first thing to check is Stylus Profile and Cantilever material. These things along with cartridge compliance responsible for the sound quality, ultralight mass and rigid cantilever with decent (nude) diamond profile like MicroLine is able to track micro details, deep bass, extended highs... it is all about accuracy.

Changing one entry level cartridge to another entry level cartridge make no sense at all (just waste of money), you will stay on the same low level. You already have entry level Shure cartridge, if you want something much better with huge difference in sound you need a better cartridge with better cantilever and better stylus tip. This is what you can find if you can spend about $400, this must be a serious upgrade.

Almost all old vintyl is trash. Warped, poppie, scratched or all three.

For this reason we have GRADING SYSTEM and according to this no matter how old is the vinyl, it can be MINT- condition or even STILL SEALED. So any vinyl release from the 60’s can be as new even in 2020. Just don’t buy VG condition and you’re fine. Actually even strong VG+ should be fine if the seller is honest.

An old pressing is superior to 99.9% all those modern re-issues made for audiophiles, because even if they are using original tape as a source, the tape degrade in time, but nicely stored original vinyl is still fresh as new. It’s a perfect media.

Honestly, most of the reissues made from the digital copy, some digital copies made long time ago when digital was sucks. Most of the re-issues are digitally remastered which is sucks if you love analog.

And finally: a lot of great records will never be properly reissued because the musical taste of audiophiles behind the reissue labels like Analogue Productions is very strange (at least not for younger generation). Also, in most cases, original master tape has been lost if it wasn’t a major label. You can’t buy half-speed mastering re-issue from analog source if the artist wasn’t big, but there are tons of great music released in the 60s/70s on very small independent labels, you can only buy an original or crappy re-issue made from the copy recorded from original vinyl, not from the original master tape.

Added a custom matched NOS sperical needle and Stanton body $450.

Sperical needle is the worst on the planet and must be avoided for any cartridges.
Stanton cartridges are great, but ONLY models with Stereohedron stylus (Not conical/spherical or elliptical). 
Stereohedron stylus alone cost about $450 NOS, but this is one of the best stylus profile in the world.  

If you decide on a V15 and need a new stylus, I would recommend a JICO replacement. If you can get their SAS, it is a stellar performer. I have one on my V15 Type III and I love it. A lot of info is available out there.

This is true, SAS is great and here is more information why, but the SAS stylus alone cost more than entire new cartridge or very close. Any other styli from JICO (except very expensive SAS) are nothing special. 

Audio-Technica cartridges are great, but even at $400 it's possible to find one not with Aluminum cantilever like the VM750SH, but with something like Titanium Pipe or Beryllium Pipe. Also AT's MicroLine (like MicroRidge) is better than Shibata (which is also great profile).  

Stanton and Pickering cartridges comes with a brush right in front of the stylus of the cartridge to protect the Stereohedron diamond from dust when you're playing records.