Much better MM cartridge than Shure V15 IV?

Sumaato, I'm just using a Musical Fidelity V-LPS for now. It actually sounds quite good. I haven't tried any other cartridges with this table - just the Blue Point 2. I've been considering trying something else, but I just can't decide (plus the Blue Point 2 sounds pretty good).

Sumaato, to sum things up, I would say the Cronus was good and the Pro-ject was "yeah, that's right" but not the best I've heard. The Pro-ject images so well will a big and musical sound stage plus has MM/MC and tube rolling options. I hope to go to a low output MC Benz Ace soon. As for interconnects, I have used the Mogami 2549 for unbalanced with great results. Same with 2921 for their speaker wire. Have heard that their 2534 is great for balanced.

It seems like a significant shift upwards from my Shure v15 IV/Jico SAS might be an Ortofon 2M Black, used with my Cronus phono section (this is the MM direction) or, for similar outlay, an Ortofon Rondo Red MC with a cheaper phono MC preamp such as the Cambridge 651P or the Musical Fidelity V-LPS. (This is the MC direction) Both directions are about the same dollars.

Any thoughts on which direction might be wiser?

I doubt that a 2M Black would be a step up from a V15IV-SAS.

It might be a step sideways, but not up.

The SAS is higher compliance with less damping than the 2M, so would prefer a lighter arm, but with the brush down, it does get some additional damping....

I would call it a sideways step rather than an upwards step.

I would consider the needle on the SAS to be superior to the Shibata in the 2M, but could not say about the cantilever quality - the Ortofons are very good, but so is the SAS....

It would probably come down to arm/system matching and synergy.... also such things as cartridge loading adjustment etc....

bye for now

David

Thanks David, for your perspective on the V15 versus 2M Black. Yes, if I was to invest upwards of $600 on a new cartridge, it had better be a startling upgrade!
I'm slowly getting the impression that my cartridge is already near the high end of the MM landscape, and it may require a lot more money to improve on this result, particularly if I went for MC plus new phono.

I have to at least try some good MM phono stages to see if the bucks would be better spent improving on the Rogue's built in phono. Rogue just released a new phono preamp called the Triton.

Meanwhile I'll follow some of the advice here and look at cables/jumpers etc.

Well, I finally DID investigate stand-alone phono stages and I am now a very happy owner of a Graham Slee Reflex phono MM stage with it's PSU1 power supply. Simply brilliant! I think I got it right in terms of the best place to put my money. The sound opened up very much, so did the soundstage. The detail, instrumental timbre and smoothness are in another league now. It makes me realize just how good the Shure V15 with Jico really is! I did not expect so much of a shift upwards in the beauty of the sound. There is no sense of compression or harshness. Orchestral massed strings have lost their glare and confusion.

Upgrading the phono amp raised this critical link into the same domain of quality as the Cronus amplifier and the LS3/5a speakers. Great synergy now.

Does anyone know if the Soundsmith stylus upgrade would
benefit the Clearaudio Maestro?

Absolutely! Yes it would improve the Maestro...

A number of contributors to Raul's MM/MC thread have done a stylus retip/recantilever on CA MM's with great success...

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1200430667&&&/Who-needs-a-MM-cartridge-type-when-we-ha

Note that this is a very very long thread - the CA MM discussion has been over the last 6 months....

And a few people have purchased the basic bottom of the line CA body, and had the stylus upgraded giving the TOTL Virtuoso/Maestro cartridges a seriously hard time at less than half the price!

The body for all the CA MM's is the same, although the mounting material can differ (aluminium, different woods).

bye for now

David