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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
skyscraper OP
824 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
1,050 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. 

 

ghdprentice
6,365 posts
 

After 20+ years with a unipivot I agree it is not a easy to use the first dozen times you use it… I would not make an audio decision based on that. 

skyscraper OP
824 posts
 

Tobes, ghdprentice, and sokogear- I’ve not noticed any problems with the VPI’s unipivot arm other than it being a little jiggly right when placing it on a record. However this doesn’t appear to be any big deal once you get used to it as ghdprentice indicates, But I am certainly no expert. Just someone who’d rather not go to the expense of a changing tonearms unless absolutely necessary. Buying a pricey cartridge is quite enough expense by itself.

Mike

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