Want to upgrade my cartridge from 2m blue to black

Hi Peter! Thanks for reminding us about pulling the plugs off those pins on the 2M series. I totally ruined a Red when I tugged on a plug to remove it and the back of the cartridge pulled out with it, and then  (the horror!) I saw those super fine coil wires with it! Arrrrghhh!

Friends: BE VERY CAREFUL if you decide to de-install a 2M cartridge when pulling the plugs off the pins!!! Do not allow the back of the catridge to pull out as you do so!

Suffice it to say I decided not to replace the Red, but I still have my Black.

And thanks for setting the facts straight about swapability of the styli across the 2M line.

I would never buy a used cartridge unless I knew the person I was buying it from.

@bsmg just stick to your Ortofon if you don’t want to discover much better MM cartridges from the past. They are available in NOS (never used) condition, sometimes even factory sealed and still cheaper than those Orotofon models you’re using. As i said earlier in my own experience only 2-3 samples out of 60 different cartridges i’ve bought have had some problems and all of them came from professional re-sellers who never really care about the qiality test or simple check, some of them know nothing about the cartridges and willing to quickly re-sell them. It’s important to understand who is the seller (an audiophile like us or just a businessman). BUT Luckily paypal buyer’s protection is always on the buyer’s side, full refund always quaranteed (including retunr shipping) even if the seller said "no return". Absolutely no risk for the buyers, but can be time-consuming.

Astatic MF-100 MF (Moving Flux with LineContact stylus) NOS available right now from Japan just for $280 on ebay, bargain! I remember when Raul swear it’s one of the best

@viridian 

And I will respectfully disagree...  

With turntable and tonearm like yours you're indeed free to disagree, you sold it as i can see, hope you can buy a coreless direct drive to forget about the "sound" of turntable forever.

Personally i use only DD truntables of the highest class, they are all dead quiet and does not have their own sound signature, they are rather similar than different, but the choise of tonearm does make a different. However, the analog system sound as good as the cartridge is.