Ortofon 2M Black- Graham 1.5/Rega/Origin Silver

When did TAS review it? I wonder if that's the issue they missed sending me? :(

The Ortofon MM carts tend to have a compliance around 20-25, which should match well with a tonearm with 12-14g effective mass.

The Origin Live Silver has an effective mass of 14g and I'm pretty sure the Regas are in the same ballpark. Compliance of the 2M Black is 22 and its weight is 7.2g.

If you put it through the formula allowing .5g for mounting hardware, the resonant frequency is around 7.23 Hz. A little low, but not bad, depending on other factors.

Also, I could be wrong about this, but it appears that the shape of the 2M series cart bodies are shaped just like the headshells of the Rega tonearms, and most of the pics I've seen of mounted 2M carts are on them, with the front of the cartridge exactly flush with the front of the headshell. Could it be that Ortofon shaped this cart for extra-easy alignment on RB tonearms?

I have TAS March 2008 analog issue, but didn't find a review for the 2M Black. There is a nice one in Hi-Fi World. Go here for a link to a pdf of that review.

Here's a thread on Vinyl Asylum you might find helpful. The poster/2M Black owner has it mounted on a VPI JMW9 tonearm, and he has owned quite a few upscale MM carts over the years. He considers the 2M Black the best MM he's ever used or heard.

A JMW 9 has an effective mass of 8.7 g, so the resonant frequency with an Ort. 2M Black would be 8.23 Hz, which is in the same ballpark as with the heavier RB300 or OL Silver.

05-15-08: Oregon
The 2M is reviewed in the current (just got it yesterday) TAS.

I just got mine yesterday too. I'll look it up.

Thanks.

Sssoooooo, what DID the TAS review say about the 2M Black??? ... There is a real buzz regarding the 2M Black. What high output it has too.

The TAS review tested the two 2M cartridges at the top and bottom of the range--the bonded elliptical Red and the nude Shibata Black--on an SME V, which has an effective mass of 10g. Running it through the standard formula gives you a resonant frequency of 8 Hz, and reviewer Neil Gader gave them both rave reviews. 8Hz doesn't seem to be too much better than the 7.23 Hz resonance of an RB300 or OL-Silver, but the SME V's fluid damping might minimize the 8Hz "bump" in a way that an undamped arm would not.

Anyway, The review mentions how linear and extended the 2M Black is without a hyper-detailed, tipped up treble. He sees it as the ultimate successor to the Shure V15 series, and that Shure diehards should be able to migrate to the 2M Black, retain what they liked about the Shure and pick up some smoothness and detail. He also said it should be a consideration for anyone on the MC/MM fence.

One of the most telling elements of the review, however, is what he said about the humble $99 Red. He called it a "screaming deal." In comparing it directly to the Black, I got the impression that they were *very* similar from the lower midrange on down, that the Red also had much of the Black's midrange clarity and transparency, but didn't quite have the Black's upper octave refinement, air, delicacy, whatever. He said the Red sounded a little drier, but I got the impression that the two sounded remarkably similar given that one is six times as expensive as the other.

I've often heard that the 2M Blue kicks ass. For the second $100 you get a nude elliptical stylus. I'm dying to check out a Blue on my Technics. Review-wise, the whole 2M line sounds promising. Ortofon's own literature states that by using split pins for the 4 output terminals, it reduces eddies or capacitance or something and keeps the treble response from rolling off the way a typical high output MM does.

For a low-cost entry-level TT rig, I nominate the Audio-Technica ATPL-120 plus Ortofon 2M Red for a grand total of $301.

And yes, these things have a prodigious output. I've seen some test out as high as 7 mV. *That* should make a good match with the low gain of the Bellari VP-129.

The difference between the Red and Blue is that the Red is a bonded stylus and the Blue is nude-mounted. So you should realize the same sort of improvement you'd get going from the OM10 to the OM20 or equivalent.

To me, going from bonded to nude is one of the first significant steps in improving transparency and musical involvement. For a bonded design such as the Red to have received such a glowing review says a lot about how good this cartridge engine is.

For $200, I bet the Blue just *kills.*