Ortofon Red vs. Ortofon Blue

They have a similar sound but the Red is slightly ragged and has bad inner groove distortion. The Blue has no IGD and sounds more refined. It will also play worn records which are unlistenable with the Red. Totally worth it if you have lots of second hand vinyl. Check out the threads on stevehoffman.tv, there's some detailed info on these carts.

Red is slightly ragged and has bad inner groove distortion.

Huh...mine sure doesn't have this.  While I agree the Blue is a little better, the Red for $100, can't be beat.

Yeah, true. Ragged is the wrong adjective. It's ragged on worn records on the inner grooves is what I meant, whereas the Blue is always smooth. Considering how long a stylus lasts I think the Blue, for the sake of an extra hundred bucks or so, represents better value than the Red.

I agree with motif (my 2M Red is just fine for general purpose listening), and I'm given to understand that a very quick upgrade is to simply purchase a Blue replacement stylus and use it in the Red body.  Run a search as this has been discussed here at least a few times.  You might have to realign the cartridge some and reset the VTF/AS, but that is part of the fun.

Good luck & happy listening!

Uberdine,

If you have any cartridge that is suffering from inner groove distortion then you may need to adjust the SRA, or even use a differnent VTA curve when setting up the table.  

Inner groove distortion is not a cartridge fault, it is a set up error.

Irish_tim,
My two cents, the Red is remarkable and very similar to the Blue.  If your looking for something different, try another brand of cartridge.. Audio Technica, Denon, Nagaoka to namr a few all have excellent models in this price range..  There are also many fine vintage Ortofons (and others)  that can be had for a song, even with a new replacement styli.  Have fun with your next selection, stretch a little and do something different.

N

Nope, I have OCD, and the cartridge was perfectly set up. Maybe it was a bad stylus, who knows, but it definitely had IGD. The Blue on the same table did not.

Very much sounds like the stylus was defective, which can happen in the case where it is a tip diamond mounted on a shank. That is the advantage the Blue provides in being nude, i.e. lower total stylus mass hence reduced ballistic inertia.

I've owned the Red, Blue, Bronze, and Black.  (Unfortunately only able to listen to the Bronze for a little while due to its becoming a casualty to the cleaning lady's dust rag.  Imagine my surprise when the cartridge hit the vinyl.)

I'd say they are all good and seem to pretty much scale up in quality with the price.  I love the Black.  I would vote for an upgrade from the Red to the Blue.  In looking back on my impressions, the Red was "great for such a cheap cartridge" and the Blue was just "a good cartridge."

I also had the experience of the Red not being as forgiving with worn records.