Best cartridge options for around $200.

01-15-13: Schubert
Great, but a 103 is over $200 while the Denon 110 is about $120 , had the Denon house sound and will smoke a Shure or Grado and has a more refined treble that the AT's.

If my DL-160 is any indication, the DL-110 has an excellent tonal balance and its dynamics are bold and colorful, but not subtle. Nor would I say that it would smoke a Grado Gold unless you're only listening to certain aspects while ignoring others.

As for it having a more refined treble than an AT150MLX, dream on. As I said, if you can get the scratch together to pick up an AT150MLX for $325, it is *well worth* the extra money. It routinely retrieves micro dynamics the DL-160 doesn't even hint at. Yet it also has better tracking, wider bandwidth, and more transparency. I.e., better in every way.

Well of couse it depends on what arm you have and what you listen to.
On my Rega 2 and SonyPS-X7(a sleeper TT) with the classical music I listen to, the DL-110 is more coherent than the "mid-ranging" Grados and bright At's .Less hi-fi, more music. YMMV

I don't care what the arm and system matching is, the DL110/160 do not have as refined a treble as the AT150MLX. The HOMC Denons have a decent tonal balance and good macro-dynamics, but simply don't operate at the same level of resolution and detail extraction of the AT150MLX. If the AT sounds bright, it first of all needs the proper capacitive match (100-200 pF), and also benefits from resonance control. Once I wrapped my SL12x0 tonearm with Teflon pipe thread tape, the presentation became very linear with no loss of resolution. The AT150 wasn't bright; it was revealing undamped resonances elsewhere in the signal chain. It's part of what comes with a higher resolution transducer.

Some come call the AT sound om massed strings, Teflon or no, bright, others detailed, up to your ears.

I know the difference between detailed and tipped up. I can't stand tipped up. It sounds bogus to me and I have no tolerance of it. It drives me out of the room. The low level detail of the AT150MLX is earned with a micro-line tip and very low moving mass, not treble glare that spotlights overtones and hall ambience.

I listen to classical a lot and hear lots of massed strings on my record player, from Bach to Holst, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Hovhanness. I also attend live symphony performances several times a year, including three between October and the end of 2012. The treble on my analog rig is linear, not tipped up. There were some brightness elements that were completely ameliorated with vibration and resonance control applied to the turntable and tonearm.

The AT150MLX wasn't TAS's 2011 Cartridge of the Year for excess brightness.