Grado cartridges still worth the money?


I wonder if people still pay near $2000 for MM cartridges? I have an old TR and wonder if I should upgrade it to the latest version. 
luna
Grado is not in your face like most these days, gives you a middle of the hall sound perfect for Symphonic music . Tone is better than most as well .
chakster,

More than a year ago I got a collection of cartridges from a friend who had a home dealership.  Due to his age he'd given up vinyl.  That included both Grado 8MX and XTZ models.  I've had a couple of other Grados but am not familiar with either of those.

I've not auditioned them yet due to rebuilding a 'table.  If the XTZ is as good as you suggest I'm sure I'll be pleased.  Were they all Signatures?  All this one shows on the stylus fitting and cylindrical container is XTZ.
I liked the Grado.  I had a 15 year old version of the Statement Reference 2.  I enjoyed it for all those years.  When I decided it was time to retire my cartridge I immediately thought I would trade it back to Grado for the new Statement Reference 2.  Upon first listening it sounded fine.  However, the more records I played the more I started noticing distortions and over modulation that I had never noticed before with the older cartridge.  After discussing this problem with my dealer, Grado support and EAR support (my phono stage is an EAR 834P) we arrived at the conclusion that the newer Grado was not a good match with my phono preamp.  The new Grado, though still considered low output, has an output of 1mv whereas the older version had an output of .5.  Apparently this was an awkward output level for my EAR.  It was too high for the MC setting on my EAR and too low for the MM setting.  I don't blame the cartridge for this but the 1 mv output may be difficult to accommodate by phono stages that have a limited range of settings.  
Love my Sonata Ref2 in a older Denon
Speakers are Apogee Stage so i would say somewhat revealing in the midrange which I believe is the hyper strong point of the Grado.

Over the years Grado has had very musical to cost ratio cartridges
Maybe not glamourous or faddish but always solid musical sound

As noted may not work in every arm/table