What's your go-to cheapie cartridge?

 @viridian all that rain, cold rain has an upside......

i rescuced a busted Sapphire recently....$2k...later..man i hope the Grado on it is worth a listen.....we shall see, she arrives from SOTA factory tommorow..

what have you in the cast off bin suitable for Sumiko FT-3 ??????

The best Grado stylus for any Grado Black, Gold etc cartridge body is XTZ, huge upgrade, but expensive. The XTZ was designed by Joseph Grado for his Signature Grado XTZ cartridge (discountinued model), but the styli still available from Grado. 

The highs are more prominent with the 8TZ styus and I feel it tracks better than with the stock stylus. Overall the frequency balance seems more even. I’m sure the XTZ would be even better, but it’s out of my price range.

One thing I wish Grado, as a prominent phono cartridge maker would do, is provide the dimensional profiles of the styli used on its cartridges. They need to join the vinyl playback world in that regard. They say "elliptical," well what exactly does that mean? Feels like they’re trying to hide something.