Some of the updated designs for a Cartridge can be as simple as a different damping material being selected.
The use of the New Material can have a substantial influence on the Cart's capabilities.
Third Party Build services are able to add to a Cart', their own selection of a Modern Material Damper, which may be very close to parity in performance/influence of a Brands selection for the material.
The same can be said for Cantilever and Styli.
As a suggestion, it is worthwhile starting a dialogue with a Third Party Cartridge Service. Informing them of your preferred genre and where you are most satisfied with a replay, i.e Female Vocals, Prominent Bass Notes, etc.
It won't be long before a selection of Donor Models are suggested to undergo a rebuild / redesign.
Finding a High Quality Donor Model becomes the challenge, hopefully one is found with less than 50% of its usage hours.
This will give a good few hundred hours of experiencing the Cart' prior to committing to the next phase of its usage.
Additionally, this is the method I have used / will continue to use, I have prudently purchased Donor Models to create new experiences, when the time to do this suits.
After A/B comparing Expensive Branded Cart's to my Bespoke Produced Design Cart. The method has ' as a subjective evaluation ' proven to be a very cost effective method to have a Cart' that competes very favourably with Branded high quality Cart's. My method offers for me is attractive as there is a lower cost associated with each Album replayed.
