A replacement for my VMS30 Mk2

[Jac Hawk]

At the moment i'm the majority of the way to upgrading my Rega Planar 3, i've done all sorts of stuff with the platters, plinth, motor etc. my final upgrade is the arm and i've settled on an Audiomods series 5 as it seems to be the obvious choice for the deck, thing is i've completely forgotten about the cartridge.

At the moment i'm using an Ortofon VMS30 Mk2 and to be honest i like it a lot, however if i have a gripe it's that it's pretty unforgiving with less than perfect vinyl which can obviously cause me problems when i'm buying 2nd hand. up until now if i was going to upgrade the cart i would have gone for the 2M Black, however i've heard it's also picks up every bit of surface noise too, so my question is, what should i be considering?

[Kvaal]

The VMS series from Ortofon is very good IMHO. There is an option in buying a new stylus with different shape. The VMS 20, VMS 10 and VMS 5 styli are possible choises. Shibata stylus is also possible from turntableneedles.

I am happy with my Technics EPC 207c. I also have the EPC 270c which is good as well. They will fit your arm very well. They can only be found as used, but the factory behind is Nagaoka, and new Nagaokas can be bought here: http://www.pickupnaald.nl/elementen/elementen-n/nagaoka.html

I believe they are the main importer of Nagaoka to Europe.

[karma67]

That would be tonar

[Jac Hawk]

Like i said Johan I like it a lot, it literally gets all the sound there is to get out of the vinyl which is good with new and pristine records, but with 2nd hand stuff you never know what you're going to get, i always run vinyl through my RCM before i play it so i'm not ploughing a field so to speak but if the groove is damaged even a little bit the VMS30 picks it up. Many people will say "buy new" and it is an option, however in my experience some of the new reissues fall way short of earlier period pressings sonically.

it's interesting that you pointed me to the Nagaoka as i have the MP500 on my list of possible candidates

[Kvaal]

That would be tonar
Yes, it is. Tonar, Nagaoka, Nagatron - same factory. You can add others as well.

[Lurch]

How about a high output MC?
HANA EH & SH, Dynavector DVx5, Denon DL110 or a HO Benz micro if your looking at spending MP500 money.

[Jac Hawk]

Never really considered a HOMC, i had a Dynavector 10X HOMC many many moons ago on an SME3009 / TD160B Mk2 and it never floated my boat, it was about 30 years ago though so i suspect HOMC's have moved on, but on that particular setup it just didn't work for my ears at all

[alanc]

Never really considered a HOMC, i had a Dynavector 10X HOMC many many moons ago on an SME3009 / TD160B Mk2 and it never floated my boat, it was about 30 years ago though so i suspect HOMC's have moved on, but on that particular setup it just didn't work for my ears at all
In the case of imperfect vinyl I wonder whether a microline stylus (e.g. Audio Technica AT 440mlb) would be a slight improvement as due to its profile it sits right in the bottom of the groove, an area that an elliptical stylus doesn’t usually touch and so this area doesn’t get damaged as much as the walls. This becomes obvious when you see how much dirt is left at the bottom of the groove. Just an idea - others may disagree. But knackered vinyl will always sound knackered.

[Jac Hawk]

i'd agree that knackered vinyl will always be knackered, the phrase " you can't polish a turd " springs to mind, and that's partly the problem, i've bought some really good 2nd hand vinyl i've also bought some that's supposedly Excellent and is virtually unplayable, what i wan't is to get a cartridge that is more forgiving of a less than perfect groove, so giving the vinyl that has a little noise that i can't remove by cleaning a place in my collection. As i've said the VMS30 Mk2 is particularly unforgiving of any groove less than perfect, and some of the stuff i want to buy isn't available as a re issue and i don't want to have to shell out for 4 or 5 copies of the same lp before i stumble upon a good one.

[Kvaal]

I`ve also tried HOMC. Bought a Denon DL 160 to put on my L 75 - stock arm. My Croft Super Micro IV is supposed to be a good preamp, but I could not make the DL- 160 sound good in my setup. A friend of mine used the Denon DL-304 for some time. We are both happy users of the Nagaoka/Technics -EPC 260c these days. The 260c is forgiving about scratches and dirt.

[Mike Reed]

ALANC has a good point in that the stylus profile is at least as likely to determine how the cart. handles groove damage. I've got a VMS20E mark 2 on my other arm and, although I haven't listened to it much, it never occurred to me that it was unkind to imperfect records. However, I'm used to upper level coils, but it certainly sounds good, even on an arm with the wrong mass (14/15g).

[karma67]

What’s the effective mass of the arm? If 16grams or more a Denon 103r would be a good choice for reduced pops and clicks.