Need New MM Cartridge Recommendation

@fleib

The SAS was a great replacement for many carts. Where else can you get a boron/MR for peanuts? It’s the cantilever, not the tip which excites the generator. What kind of cantilever does the Technics have? Good luck finding original Technics stylus.

Technics EPC-205CMk4 comes with super light weight tapered Boron pipe. The metal has been crystallized and then processed into a cantilever with a laser beam. This design results in a dramatic reduction in effective tip mass which is 0,109 mg. Stylus is 0,2 x 0,7 elliptical (0,07-mm square-block diamond tip). Neodymium magnet. Frequency response: 5 Hz to 100 khz

For some reason the original technics stylus was much better to my ears than new jico sas.

Another technics epc-100c mk3 was retipped and recantilevered by Axel (with magaoka boron cantilever and elliptical diamond). Also great cartridge. 

Fleib,

Yes, I have now had the Ortofon 2M Black running as much as possible.  
Surface noise is way lower than when I first installed it several weeks ago.  I don't think it's me getting used to it either.  I can remember there being more hiss coming off records.  It seems to be better behaved.  

Also, I really dialed in vertical tracking angle, tracking force, and azimuth (side to side leveling ?) on the Roksan Nima tonearm.  Imaging is way better and there's better balance between the low, mid and high end. 

What's more, I've been adding in bung port plugs on my PSB Imagine T2 loudspeakers.  Wow!  I'm getting imaging galore and sparkle on the top end, which I was longing for (not the fault of the Roksan Corus Black or the Ortofon--just tuning my speakers). 

I'm very, very happy.  I'm just super curious to see what a <$400 Audio Technica MM cart could do in competition.  At $750, the Ortofon 2M Black was getting pricy to the point of knocking on the door of going moving coil and buying a new phono board for the Creek Evolution 100A integrated to amplify the moving coil.  

I just finished listening to Getz/Gilberto and I have Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise, on right now (I'm just getting to know this album--it won awards 10 years ago and I never heard it).  Both records sound beautiful and real.  Great holography.  I had Eric Clapton's Unplugged album on this weekend too.  So lifelike.  I'm really enjoying this thing.  

I'd say price is the only drawback.  I just don't know where the surface noise went!  I know it was there during 1-20 hours or so.  I suppose cartridges do break in?  I've owned:  garbage cartridges as a kid in the 70s/80s, a Rega Elicit (I think in 1996), a Grado Prestige something (around $125), a Roksan Corus (a great cartridge made by Goldring) and now the Ortofon 2M Black.  

I'm loving vinyl again and listening to more music than ever. 

Let me know if I can be of help or answer any questions.  

Raul, with all due respect I don't need you to tell me what music sounds like at a live performance. Sweetness is, for me, found in the nuances and undertones. I have had a few MMs that miss a good part of this. Just curious, and directed my post at a person who had some experience with the Nagaoka 500. If you can't help with a little info, butt out.