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There's always been some controversy in audio circles regarding the best cartridges and styli to use over the decades, the earliest being from the days of horn gramophones covering the shape of the stylus, what it is made from, to the sort of cartridge it is attached to and so on.
Sometimes it is clear one is better overall such as moving magnet cartridge sounds better and causes less wear than a crystal one to your records but on other occasions its been "swings and roundabouts" depending on what you prioritized such as the moving magnets ease of replacing the stylus over the potential advantages of the moving coil although that has to be re-tipped by an expert (or you use a part exchange scheme to get a new one each time).
While more advanced stylus shapes can by being a closer fit to the record grove wall, sounding better for tracing the grove more accurately, some find the demands of keeping a record spotless clean to avoid more obvious noise from debris a challenge.
That is one reason I've decided to go slightly backwards and explore one of the best regular eliptical stylus fitted cartridges, the Nagaoka MP 110 whose tracking is better than most in its price range.
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For a good number of years Nagaoka of Japan had no official importer in the UK but that has changed over some 18 or so months, so they are back on sale with proper dealer support.
As purchased, it was pre-mounted into a SME style headshell to screw into my turntables arm so all the fiddly wiring was done for me and I'm looking forward to giving this ago alongside my Ortofon Concorde 20 and 30 higher spec but more demanding .
I expect it to sound slightly warmer and with a tadge less extreme high frequencies.
