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Ortofon 2m Red, upgrade too...?


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On 04/06/2019 at 3:44 PM, PauliD said:

 

The Ortofon Blue is next step up the chain but I'm not loyal to Ortofon by any means, but that is within my budget. Any recommendations or should I save up more to really get something that would make a improvement?

 

The Blue is good but not eye opening. It's about on par with my Rega Bias 2 (most people hate Rega carts but I quite enjoy it). I'm looking at upgrading the blue on that tt and considering the Nagaoka MP-150 for some warmth, the Hana EH MC or EL (warm as well) if you have a decent Phono pre that can handle it.

 

I don't know if the Hana is better than the Nagaoka, just different flavours. If you want some excitement and pure detail this Audio Technica has just that in spades. But you pay for it. I have the Audio Technica AT150MLX and at the time compared it to the Ortofon Black. I thought the AT was more detailed, tracked better and sounded very real. It blew my mind. 

 

I've also listened to a Denon 103? And wasn't for me. That's the limit to what I've heard. Oh the 150MLX is on a Project RPM5.1,  the Bias 2 is on a Rega P1 and the Blue is on a vintage APAN BFU-121 (my daughters). 

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was chatting at the lunch table at work and discovered another vinyl fan. He's going to let me borrow his Rega Exact yellow stylus over a weekend I can do an A-B. Very nice of him and lets see how it goes as a place to start :)

Edited by PauliD
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3 hours ago, PauliD said:

was chatting at the lunch table at work and discovered another vinyl fan. He's going to let me borrow his Rega Exact yellow stylus over a weekend I can do an A-B. Very nice of him and lets see how it goes as a place to start :)

That's nice of him. It will give you the flavour of Rega carts.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 05/06/2019 at 11:16 AM, Wimbo said:

Phono stage, not cartridge :)

I think your right! I hooked up the Rega Exact quickly and was not that impressed, possibly worse? The stylus was a little dirty but didn't really improve things. I'll spend more time to find tune everything this weekend and give the record a clean to make doubly sure.

 

So it does point to the phono stage. Now that is another fun game of which one to get :D 

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Ok another update for those interested. I brought a new headshell for the Rega so I can swap them quickly. Luckily VTA and tracking is pretty much the same by eyeball. But it still wasn't sounding right so I went out and brought a Schitt Mani after reading/seeing all the rave reviews and it's in the sweet spot of what I was wanting to pay. Addicted to Audio is up the road and they had one in stock so boom!

 

I'm pretty happy with the result even with the Ortofon Red. I'm still running the phono stage into the Elikit pre-amp mainly to manage the gain into the CXA80 to keep the volume in the ballpark of the other sources. 

 

So yay. I have about 3-6months before I want to change something again :D 

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  • 1 month later...

I have recently purchased a MMF 7.1 with an Ortofon 2M blue - un upgrade from my Rega P2 with the Elys II.  Can't compare the two OMI.  I get that the TT's are in different classes, but the vinyl performance is chalk and cheese.  Vinyl which used to skip and carry on with the Elys II barely make a crackle with the Ortofon 2M blue.  I am by no means an expert as to why - I only tell it like it is.  I guess it is the stylus shape but for my listening a least the Ortofon is far superior.  

 

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  • 1 year later...

Stumbled into this thread because I also have an Ortofon 2M Red with an Elekit TU-8500 phono stage. I'm curious what you ended up going with? I was thinking another Ortofon 2M, but the Bronze. I like what someone had to say about the Audio Technica AT150MLX up there. I'm not dedicated to Ortofon, but I am used to their sound, and like it.

 

I'd be happy to upgrade the phono-pre as well with another kit a little later, but at the moment, I'm interested in an awesome cartridge. (this Pearl 2 DIY thread)

 

Anyhow, curious what you ended up doing. Thanks!

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On 05/06/2019 at 4:52 PM, AussieMick said:

The Ortofon stylus system means all of the 2M series is interchangeable. HOWEVER!!! The body for the bronze and black is of a different material than for red/blue. It improves performance significantly by better dealing with resonance.
So yes, you can put a black stylus on a red body, but you’ll be missing out of a lot of performance. This is why Ortofon day they’re not interchangeable.
In this case, “interchangeable” and “they fit” are two very different things.

Also the coils on the engine of the Bronze/Black body are silver plated copper instead of the copper on the Red/Blue bodies.

 

I used to really like my Bronze.

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