Quote Originally Posted by Woochifer
At the risk of tooting my own horn and getting self-congratulatory on you, I would also look into the Ortofon OM series. It's one of the most versatile cartridges out there because of its upgradability and high compliance. To upgrade the OM series, all you do is buy a higher line replacement stylus. The replacements range in price from $30 for the Stylus 5 to $190 for the Stylus 40. Each step in between gives you a noticeable improvement in audio quality. It's also a very lightweight design and comes with a removeable weight plate and high compliance, so it's very compatible with most tonearms.

LP Gear still has the Ortofon OM series cartridges on sale, and the $110 OM20 Super probably offers the most bang for the buck. It has a highly detailed and listenable sound that's a tad lean in the mids, but nice and tight all the way throughout the frequency range. I recently went back to the OM series with the OM30, and it's brought the life back to my vinyl collection. The cartridge can make a huge difference and make even a cheap turntable sound pretty decent (keep in mind that the vintage Pioneer turntables were well made, and offered decent performance for the price).

The Shures are exceptional trackers, so if you plan on buying a lot of used vinyl, that might be a consideration because they can handle warped and off-center vinyl very well.

The main drawback to the Grados is that they are prone to picking up hum from the motor. It depends on the turntable model, but unfortunately you won't know if that hum's an issue until you install the cartridge. Otherwise, they are also very frequently cited as very good value cartridges. I would have tried out one of the Grados, but I read in several places that the Grado cartridges had hum problems with my particular turntable, so I went with the Ortofon.
I agree that the Ortofon carts are great. I started with an OM 10 and have upgraded to the stylus 40. The upgradeability of the series is really nice and makes it so much cheaper than getting a whole new cartridge. It's also really easy to switch out the stylus for a 78 one if you even plan on playing 78s.

The only Shure I've used is a M91ED, which is no longer available, but it is a great cartridge for questionable tables as it tracks fantastically, has a strong output, and seems to roll off a lot of surface noise. If you plan on burning a lot of vinyl to CD, the high output and reduced surface noise could make it a great cartridge for the job. From what I've heard others say, the current M97 shares a lot of the same character, but I've not heard one personally.

I did use a Grado Black before, and liked it. I had no hum on my table, but it doesn't trak as well as the Shure or Ortofon. I liked the midrange on it quite a bit, nice rich sound, but it was a bit spitty in the high end. Hard to say really as I was using it on a really old table.