Cartridge suggestions please!

[RobbieGong]

I'm at the budget end of cartridges and don't have a lot of experience, but if you also consider humble MM then I can't tell you how much I've been enjoying the Ortofon 2M Black.

Since getting it I've never really felt I need to upgrade it further (well, maybe one day) - it's crystal clear, detailed and yet still fluid and musical. Also quite low noise really. Good condition records could be mistaken for CD in that respect.

Just be careful of how you load it (low cap).

Still, I don't have much experience of high end carts so I'm just speaking from how much I enjoy the Ortofon MM, I didn't really know vinyl could sound _that_ good, now I'm kinda converted from digital for dedicated listening (still use digital of course for general listening, as so convenient).

Hi Louis, You're in good company as there are a good few 2MB fans here, I'll take claim to being at least one of the biggest - superb cart ! My only issue is I find it a real pig to set up unfortunately. If you've any any tips do let me know (pm me if you like, save taking the thread completely off course ) ?

[LouisB]

Hi Louis, You're in good company as there are a good few 2MB fans here, I'll take claim to being at least one of the biggest - superb cart ! My only issue is I find it a real pig to set up unfortunately. If you've any any tips do let me know (pm me if you like, save taking the thread completely off course ) ?

great to hear.

When it comes to setup I suspect I know far less than yourself. I think I was perhaps lucky with it. I'd like to do a full alignment on it sometime but for now I'm scared to fiddle with it until I really know what I'm doing. Don't want to risk making it worse not better.

Perhaps if you wanted to start up a new thread I'd be interested to learn from other 2M users, also to discuss phono stages to match these MMs too.

[AlfaGTV]

Congrats on the Kleos purchase! I'd say that the new series of Lyra carts are extremely good for the money, even though they are far from low cost!
As a previous owner of a VTL TL5.5 Series 2 Signature i would urge you to try a good step up together with the built in phono stage configured to MM operation. That's what i ultimately used together with my MC carts (Lyra Delos, Dynavector XX2 MkII and Benz Micro Wood SL. Even some DL-103 variants, as the 103SA)
Ultimately i let my VTL pre go and are back to solid state Karan pre and a Tom Evans Microgroove Plus X MkII and enjoying each cart without the added complexity of the step up!