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Advice on Phono Cartridge

Hello All!

I have a Pro-Ject Debut III with the original Ortofon OM-5 cartridge.  I have never been very impressed with the sound of the table/cartridge.  I am looking at upgrading the cartridge and I am most interested in The Ortofon 2M Blue or the Denon DL-103R.  I would like to stay under $300 for a cartridge.  I haven't really heard any other cartridges.  People seem to have a lot of good things to say about those two, but I'm open to others as well.  Any advice would be much appreciated. 

Thanks!!

petrela
petrela OP
19 posts
 

Thanks Paraneer!  That is a handy tool, I'm curious as to the math behind the chart.

As with most things, every answer seems to generate 2 more questions.  I will definitely do some more research on this.

Do you have any actual personal (listening) experience with the 2M Blue?  If so, do you think it's worth the hype?


Thanks for the suggestion wolf_garcia.  I hadn't really looked into the Pearl.  It does appear to be a good fit for my tonearm also.  The price is good,  but I would probably tend to lean towards the 2M Blue, just because of all the good reviews.  It's too bad you can't go to "the store" and compare all these cartridges side by side.

My inlaws had an old Marantz turntable (6100 I think) and that sounded better than my Debut III.

wolf_garcia
6,711 posts
 
I was tempted to try one of the "2M" carts but it was pointed out to me by another Akito owner that they won't fit on my arm. Weird but true.
petrela OP
19 posts
 
As it it won't physically fit?  That seems weird.  Why is that?  Length of the head or something?
wolf_garcia
6,711 posts
 
Yeah…it seems to be too large for the Akito's wires to make the bend around to the tonearm clips…or something...
palasr
527 posts
 
IIRC, the Akito has a rather short headshell which makes it difficult to impossible to mount some cartridges.   Linn carts from back in the day (Karma, Asaka, Troika) all had the same small dimensions thereby almost necessitating the use of their own carts on their tonearms.
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