DENON DL-304. Is it the bargain sound or not?

Fleib & Johnnyb53, thanks both of you for your interesting and for your answers.
I must test some of these cartridges in my system, to have a conclusion. Most of all I am considering to test the Grado, Clearaudio & AT.

About the solution of vintage carts that Fleib mentioned, I think that is a better solution to buy one of these. The older tech of those MM carts may be better than the newest ones. I suppose that a Shure V15 or a Technics EPC-100C Mk3 are very nice solutions.
The point is, as you mention, the condition of the needle. May be the better way to have a new needle is Jico with SAS technology.

I have a Shure M91ED cartridge with an original NOS needle, that I bought it a week ago. The sound compared to Denon DL-160, has some "points".
This cart plays better in low & middle frequencies, but is disappointing at highs. Do you think is a good start, to buy a SAS replacement needle from Jico for M91ED? Is this a better solution, or I must buy a new one from those you mentioned, to have better results from the combination of Shure M91ED – Jico SAS?

The biggest mistake for those loading a cartridge down is to rely on using resistors to load the cart but does not account for the gain. The transformed impedance of the SUT's affects the gain needed for the cartridge to match well. That is the reason why said 1:36 SUT!!! if you have a 1:10(14 db) SUT and you keep on lowering the load down by means of resistors, you are in for a very big disappointment, guaranteed. You can look at it electrically thru analyzing a voltage divider circuit behaving on AC signal. Realize that as soon as the load of the cart equals to that of it's internal impedance, the output it can generate is halved!

But of course, you do not have to worry about that now.

Many threads mention a thick slab of butcher block wood to help the sound of the table.

I was wondering if a slab of solid granite (like a leftover from a kitch counter project) would do the trick?

Or is there something inherently wrong with stone/granite that precludes it from reducing vibration and providing better damping?

I had a slab of black granite under my VPI Scout turntable. Tended to make the sound bright and thin. Solid maple (butcherblock) 2 to 3 inches thick is better. You will get a warmer and richer sound, very musical. I had a Grado Gold and didn't care too much for it. I actually liked a Shure m97e something or other and it was much more involving in my system. I am now using a ZU/Denon DL103 moving coil cartridge that blows away anything under 500.00. I ended up putting the slab of granite under my tube preamp, made a slight difference for the better.

Bob