I've heard the 2M Blue in an A/B test with a $1,000 Clearaudio Virtuoso... The 2M Blue hung with the more expensive cart very well. Pretty darn impressive.
As always Mr, Collins..a very fair and honest opinion backed up by real world experience to draw your opinion from.. nice work and your table is cool in a modern from love the tonearm would be awesome in chrome..lol..but that's my opinion..im biased..cheers
Great video ! Enjoyed muchly, and you brought out a LOT of great points, & stats.. I have been using the 2M Blue just about since the beginning, and when we go out and do shows,
My personal use of this cart. It has a flat curve (meaning it's like having your EQ set to 0). Very detailed and a bright sound (Not as bright as it's competitor the AT 530EN).
If you want t resurrect your Stanton 680/681, get a Jico Shibata stylus for it direct from Japan. I use the Pickering XV-15 style stylus mount and run it with no brush, tracking just a hair over 2.0g. Run through a high quality phono preamp, it should wipe the floor with the 2M Blue and rival cartridges costing much more. I like it better in many ways than my Goldring 1042, which is a much more expensive cartridge. Another option is to send your Stanton to a reputable retipper. A Stanton can be retipped the same way that MC cartridges are, with very high grade stylus options if you want.
I agree with you, 4 or 5 grams tracking force is the standard from the fifties and isn't appropriate for modern use. One or two plays probably won't hurt, but you don't want to keep going at 5 grams track-force for too long and not iwth your favourite records. I honestly didn't know, and I'm sad to hear that Shure has given up on cartridges and record styli . My favourite that i'm still using is a Shure n-44 that is a bit of a throwback design to the 70s, but it still sounds great. I guess I'll have to buy the imitation replacement needles from the various internet sources. Good video, though, and I'm glad you like your Ortofon blue. I'll have to consider it when I make my next cartidgel upgrade. :)
My set up is a Project Carbon (Standard 2M Red) and a pair of Klipsch R15PM. Fantastic, but I will upgrade to the blue when the red wears out. Eventually I would also like to upgrade while still using the speakers but adding a quality pre amp.
In 2002 I acquired a free haul of 400+ vinyl records along with a free 1970’s Pioneer PL-550 turntable equipped with a Stanton 681 cartridge. I would say the needle performed very well considering it sat unused for almost 2 decades. It lasted for about one year until the diamond piece broke off (bummer) I replaced it with a cheap $40 Audio Technica cartridge which also sounded excellent too. I still use it today but I may replace it with a new 2M Blue.
While I like the blue and think it does sound good, it is a colorful sound. I believe the blue definately has a sound of its own. Not neutral, but enjoyable.
I used to have an Ortofon 2M Blue, but being the clumsy fool that I am, I dropped the tonearm on to the turntable and broke the cantilever. It was a great sounding cartridge, though. Maybe I should get another Blue stylus.
I bought a blue recently and was shocked when i could not see any diamond point. Looking through a magnifying glass, i finally saw the point. It is so small that it is difficult to see through my old eyes. I had a ortophon cartridge diamond break off after playing just two records. Thankfully it wasn’t expensive. But i expected the pointto be as visible as it is on the red.
My PJ debut Carbon Esprit came with the Red. It’s still new. I contemplated upgrading to Blue, just because I could. (In other words, I’m happy with the Red. Salesperson told me the difference would be negligible AND that it would take 200-400 hours of play before Red was fully broken in. So, I’m holding off. Just FYI.
I've seen some good reviews on Grado. I'm looking to buy a new phono cartridge, so i'm going to watch/read as many reviews as I can. Thanks for the review Joe.
I listened through, but not sure I got the right interpretation... I am looking for new styli for my Stanton and Pickering cartridges. But, it sounds like you are saying 1) there are no quality replacements available, and 2) even if they were, the cartridges themselves have atrophied parts and are not going to work properly. Am I correct in this interpretation? Thanks!
Would the Ortofon work better on a recapped REVOX B790 where the tiny belt has been replaced you know the belt that drives the cartridge from one end of the tonearm to the other and back again as the tiny belt is prone to becoming sticky then goes gooey or getting a MARANTZ TT143 turntable which will not play unless the lid is down as the tonearm is in the lid of the turntable.
Instead of listening to these cartridges through RU-vid's compressed audio, and trying to pick out the sibilants and splatter why not use one the MANY audiophile test records and connecting a scope to the output of the pre-amp. To see the waveforms at various frequencies and velocities in comparing cartridges, and actually SEE what each cartridge was capable of reproducing would be more enlightening. As you may know, high-end audio "salons" use scopes and distortion analyzers to set up high end cartridge/tonearms. Btw, I wish these RU-vid audio reviewers would STOP saying "turntable" when talking about cartridge compatibility, its the TONEARM that determines how a cartridge will perform. The TURNTABLE only spins the record and has no direct influence on the catridge. I myself have a Kenwood KD500 TURNTABLE and on this I have mounted a SME Series3 TONEARM with an Ortofon X3-MC (moving coil) cartridge. This arm plays VERY nicely with the X3-MC, however, considering the age of my setup (1987), I am about to try an Ortifon 2M Bronze. If there is a NOTICEABLE improvment I will stick with the Bronze. THANK YOU !
