If you love the Ortofon 2M Black, you'll really love...... (help me upgrade)


Still trying to find a new cartridge and I've identified very clearly that I love the sonic signature of the 2m Black but would love something that had overall more of what it does well. With that info is there cartridge anyone would recommend up to 2500?
dhcod
@dhcod 

Thanks Chakster but I'm not looking to get back into the vintage market.  

If they are NOS you are safe, no ?

Anyway, i'm curious what you can get with $2500 limit, except the usual suspects from Ortofon, Nagaoka, AT, Dynavector ?

Maybe you should look for the Miyajima Shilabe or Kansui if you want something interesting. 
 One thing is for sure, while I am certain it is a very fine product, there is no way that the 2M black is the finest cartridge ever made in history. So you can start from that. After that, it would be a matter of your opinion. Perhaps you might want to start with other Ortofon cartridges that are ranked superior by Ortofon, in the sense that the retail price is higher or according to build quality. If you stick with Ortofon  products, you are likely to preserve the sound quality that you seem to admire so much in the 2M black. I own several  Ortofon MC cartridges, and it is my observation that they do share a certain very neutral house sound.
Thanks for the advice. Is there a particular model of Ortofon that you recommend?
@lewm i’m sure you have the Ortofon MC2000 (Raul’s favorite, lol) ?
I was so happy to find NOS, the package is amazing and the invitation to the Ortofon Golden Ear Club :))

Tell us what do you think about that vintage ortofon in comparison to the new cartridges.

Was it one of a few MC that can pass Cannon Shots on Telarc 812 ?
This is an amazing tracker, high compliance MC (very rare combination) 



Chakster, I am currently in mad passionate love with the Ortofon MC2000. However, it only works for me (with no SUT) because of the very low input sensitivity of the Beveridge direct-drive amplifiers. By this I mean that the amplifiers seem to require rather low signal voltage to drive them to full output. I run the MC2000 direct into my Manley Steelhead which can provide only 65db of gain. I use the Steelhead as a full-function preamplifier, so there is no downstream linestage that provides yet more gain. I calculated that 65db of voltage gain for an average 0.05mV signal would produce barely 0.4V output. Yet somehow the output of the Steelhead when driven by the MC2000 is sufficient to drive the Beveridge 2SW amplifiers to high SPLs, and the Steelhead is very quiet even wide open. However, you would dislike my sample of the MC2000, based on your often stated principles; I bought it from Nandric who had it re-tipped by Axel prior to sale. Axel tried to mimic the original cantilever and stylus shape as much as possible.

The MC2000 does not work well with my other audio system, for lack of adequate phono gain, in the absence of a SUT. Or rather, it gets unacceptably noisy just at the point where it develops adequate SPLs. In fact, I was going to sell the MC2000, until I tried it on the Bev system.

dhcod, I have no direct experience of the modern MM cartridges made by Ortofon, but is the Quintet on a higher plane, commercially, compared to the 2M Black? If so, you might try it. Another highly regarded Ortofon MM is the MM20FL Super, a vintage model of which I own two, both NOS.