What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

@pindac 

Thanks for the information. The second MC2000 that I have as already been fitted with a boron cantilever and microridge stylus, its now in its modified form. This has become my daily driver cartridge. Since the OEM cantilever was not savable, this is the best that can be done with it. The second MC2000 I have is getting a replacement diamond installed in the OEM cantilever now. So at this point I have a fully functional and refurbished OEM MC2000 and T2000, and a second MC2000 to be played on a casual basis. I have a MC3000 II and MC5000 for casual listening also. 

My SOTA has a Transfiguration Proteus on it, and the other arm on the Scheu has an Ortofon Verismo on it, and while those are considered to be pretty good cartridges, the MC2000 is really within the same class...provided you can deal with its incredibly low output and high compliance. It certainly is a more difficult cartridge to accommodate. 

Due to Brexit, the Third Party Service based in Holland, stopped dealing with Items from the UK.

This has been a loss, as the Technician really knows the Ortofon Products from the past 20ish Years as there is design used that the Technician has had a input to.

Being a Ortofon user as a preference, it is a shame to have had lost the support of such a knowledge base.

A Ortofon Cart' that has been under the hand of a Technician and optimised for mechanical function in relation to their intimate knowledge of the Brands Set Up Parameters, can standout as a contender to a upper level model.

I have experienced this, but after regular experiences and periods of usage increasing for the Cart's being compared, there is a time that arrives where the upper model shows it strengths.

The Verismo is one on my Radar, as has been the Proteus.

Your earlier reports has influenced my leaning toward Ortofon and the Verismo, as the Cart' of interest.

The only others on the Radar are the MSL Platinum and the Mutech Hyabusa.

I am assured through another source, maybe the most experienced I know of using modern and vintage Analogue Replay ancillaries, that the Hyabusa is extremely close to the Platinum and the extra cost is not necessary, if being without the MSL  Brand is not of such a concern. 

So the cabling showed up for the phono stage. I bought balanced Wireworld Silver Eclipse 8 interconnects and also grabbed a couple of pairs of Wireworld Micro Eclipse 8 tone arm wiring with XLR terminations with straight and SME style DIN plugs. This way I can also use the SME V or the Dynavector DV505 with this phono stage if I choose so. 

With the Verismo I also found it beneficial to select the medium, +7dB I believe, setting. A little more drive opened the sound up and provided a more dynamic and lively presentation. 

One thing I wonder about is the Neumann RIAA setting. I have read a bit about this, and it seems that some folks think its inaudible, while others believe its worth exploring. Yes I can install jumpers and make up my own mind. I am just curious if others have worked with it at all. 

Dear @neonknight  : The 3.18uS in the inverse RIAA eq. is way controversial for say the least.

My phonolinepreamp comes with the option to use it or not, your choice.

The key word/question for an audiophile to use it or not is not if it's inaudible or if it's because this depends directly of which high resolution has your system. If your system has the kind levels of true high resolution then you will know for sure.

Now, the cutting head in the recording proccess can't follows over 50khz-60khz because it burns-in but the de-emphasis RIAA curve says to goes to infinite over that HF range mentioned and that's no posible then in the recording proccess exist a " stop " limit in frequency to avoid the cutting head burn-in and the LPs comes withthat " stop limit " when the inverse RIAA eq. in a normal phono stage goes to infinite.

As all in audio always exist treade-offs and after " thousands " of tests with I decided to use that 3.18uS with out no  trade-offs I could detect even today but benefits.

Now, each manufacturer/designer of phono stages design not exactly in the same way and in some the phase anomalies could be listened or not depends how was implemented. In my unit is totally transparent for the better and at the end it's in that way how the LPs comes.

Your choice,

R.

Is the Verismo a good match for a current injection phono? Ortofon specifically chose a less-ferrous armature for the Verismo (and A95, and Windfeld Ti), which reduces its output for a given coil (0.2mV from 7 ohms - compare to A90 at 0.27mV from 4 ohms). It has a relatively high coil DC resistance for its output. I'm not too educated on the current-injection approach but it seems like it favors a high ratio of output signal to coil resistance, which necessitates highly magnetic armatures.