Which Cartrudge For My Upcoming Technics 1200 GR 2 Turnable - Looking at Ortofon 2m Black


Note: Sorry about the misspelled Cartridge in title. Wish I could update that. 

 

I have a  Luxman 595 Class A amplifier with Focal N1 speakers. Depending on the recording, it can be on the bright side.  I own about 20 records. 80% of them are electronic mixes from the 90s. The rest are dinosaur jr, mazzy star, and so on. 

I have found memories of playing my grandfathers fisher turntable (with Mitsubushi stereo system) which looked similar to the Technics 1200GR2, so that is the turntable I am going to get. I also have found memories of going to the record store in the 90s (sound warehouse) and they had a Bose 901 VI system (I think... they were very large hung from the cieling) with a turtable that sounded so good. 

The sound I am looking for is *not a audiophile high resolving sound. Instead, I am looking for a energetic sound with power. I do want good audio quality though. 

What I am looking at is the Ortofon 2m Black LVB 250 or the 2m black. I never hear them in person. What is everyones thoughts?

dman777

I find it odd that no one mentioned the cartridge’s compliance as a factor in matching cartridge to tonearm; although the details of matching impedances and setting gain, etc. have been fascinating. 
 

@dman777 Good move to go through a dealer. Since he is sourcing the cartridge as well as the turntable, is he going to set it up for you? If so, that’s a valuable service in itself. You can spend a lot of time and money acquiring the knowledge and tools to do it yourself. (Ask me how I know.)

Good point, Rooney. The Technics tonearm is medium mass and probably would mate ok with all but very high or very low compliance cartridges. In the latter case one could use a heavy aftermarket headshell to compensate for v low compliance. For example I use an Ortofon LH9000 headshell with my low compliance Koetsu. The LH9000 weighs 18g.

@billstevenson 

OP has made an excellent choice

just to clarify, I think you made a typo when you typed LMN60xSL

I think you meant VMN60xSL

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/cartridges/line-series/vmx-series

SL is their premiere stylus shape, Special Line Contact, the most surface contact area. I’ve never seen or heard one, they talk about it, and in their chart, they indicate it has the longest life of their shapes (a result of the increased contact area).

@audphile1 

Yes, aluminum can be VERY Good.

My response in another thread

"I have had many Aluminum cantilevers that have sounded quite nice. The difference, to me, is the ability to successfully trace very high frequencies without distortion (age 77, I cannot even hear them), and what makes the most to me, tighter lows, and tighter imaging,

but Inferior is too strong a word for aluminum IMO"

@elliottbnewcombjr I have owned Hana EL and Hana ML with aluminum cantilever. Neither had any audible distortion, or at least within the frequency range I can hear. Not sure what you meant by this…

The difference, to me, is the ability to successfully trace very high frequencies without distortion

One of us either overthinking everything or oversimplifying things…