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Advice needed on MC cartridges

I’ve an Ortofon Black 2M cartridge on my VPI Classic 2 turntable, It’s a moving magnet type cartridge with a Shibata stylus and cost about $700 when purchased. I could easily be wrong, but am under the impression that the Ortofon 2M Black is about as good as it gets with MM cartridges and if I wished to upgrade I’d need to be thinking about moving into a MC, moving coil, type.

So I’ve been trying to learn something about moving coil cartridges and what differences or improvements in sound quality might be obtained by using one. My integrated amp, a Luxman 507uX Mk2, has a built in phono stage and can play either type,

Generally speaking, how much more would need to be spent on a MC cartridge before a noticeable, or significant improvement, might be heard in sound quality over the Ortofon 2M’s performance? What improvements in performance might you obtain using one a better quality MC over the Ortofon 2M Black? And third, what MC cartridges might you recommend that would fit in performance and budget wise with a system composed of the above equipment plus Magico A3 speakers. My other equipment is a Marantz Ruby CD/SACD player and a Shunyata Denali Hydra power conditioner.

I’ve never heard a MC cartridge in use so would be interested in following your advice and recommendations to see if I can find a dealer or someone that might be able to demo one so I can hear what the differences might be in performance. Thank you for any responses or suggestions

Mike

skyscraper
ghdprentice
6,404 posts
 

When I bought my Frog he said you could get twice the play time out of them. I know I got at least 2,000 hours without retipping… when I traded it in still sounding great.

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,774 posts
 

I tried a 2M Black in my system some years ago, and it was nice but not for me. I’ve honestly liked every single MC cartridge I’ve used (some 20 now) more than it. Certainly no need to spend several K.

A new Benz Zebrawood L from the classifieds here (it ships from HK) at 1500 is a pretty great bang for buck to get that really good "lo MC" sound for not too much money. At 0.4mV output and 12 ohms ohms it’s fairly easy to match with either an active MC stage or a SUT. Its mass and compliance will work well with your VPI arm (the "dual pivot" to improve stability seems like a very good addition for their unipivots btw - I’ve personally heard good results with that and my Koetsu RSP). Hard to go wrong with that Zebrawood, and you’re not in too deep if you want to pivot elsewhere for any reason. Really pretty cartridge too!!

skyscraper OP
825 posts
 

Mulveling, thank you much for mentioning VPI’s dual pivot mod. I’d not heard of that before and it may come in handy if I need to address Raul’s concerns about unipivots negatively affecting cartridge performance somehow.. Just read a long post on the dual pivot mod on the Steve Hoffman site and will have to look into it some more.

Appreciate your recommends too, although I think I’ll be going the expensive route. At age 70 in a few weeks, I’m beginning to realize it’s time to try and get the best you can afford while you still can and still have time to enjoy it.

Ghdprentice, that would be great to get double the usual MC life span out of a Van den Hul Frog. If I had to purchase today I’d be leaning in the Frog’s direction, but more research after identifying alternatives at that price point is probably a good idea.

If anyone has any suggestion in that $3,500 price range please let me know. Thanks,.

Mike

 

sokogear
1,053 posts
 

Unipivots are just a pain to handle-they jump all over the place whenever I’ve demoed one. I guess you can get used to it, but gimbal arms are a breeze. I’m a Rega owner for 15 years or so, and their arms IMHO give the best bang for the buck. No VTA, but I dont think that is a big deal so long as it is set up correctly initially with a spacer if needed if the cartridge is higher than Regas (I am not a big fan of their cartridges).

tobes's avatar
tobes
436 posts
 

Unipivots are just a pain to handle-they jump all over the place whenever I’ve demoed one. I guess you can get used to it, but gimbal arms are a breeze.

This is a gross exaggeration. I owned the Graham 1.5T and then Phantom II unipivots for a total of 28yrs and found them supremely stable and easy to use - excellent sounding too. The 1.5T replaced a SME-V and was easier to setup and more adjustable. 

 

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