Honest question about cartridge vs. turntable performance.

The turntable should be the thing in your system that vanishes and most don't.  Check out anything that George Merrill builds.... http://hifigem.com/
He's been doing this for a long time and there are several informative papers that he's authored as well. 
His all out assault on a turntable that checks all the boxes is:  http://hifigem.com/merrill-williams-101-3-turntable.html
Be careful who you listen to...and best of luck.

Great TT and arm,  Great  Cartridge, Great phono stage = great sound.
But! Nothing will help a bad sounding cartridge.

Hi. I’ve not read everything that’s come before, so I apologize for any redundancy. I liked and agree with the early post about the cartridge, turntable and phono preamp each being 90% of the sound. So I treat all three equally, and I’m always asking myself, which of the three has become my weakest link? It doesn’t mean I spend the same amount on each one, but rather I read reviews looking for a piece that costs maybe twice what my current one does—and is consistently called a value that (I hate this phrase) punches above its weight. And the circle goes round till I’m happy. Which I am right now, for now. Given that you didn’t mention your phono pre, I wonder if it’s your next upgrade? 

I made the exact change...
I had the 'MMF 5.1' and changed to the 'VPI Classic 2se' which has a 10.5 tonearm
              o moving the Ortofon Quintet Black S MC cartridge

My opinion is that there was a significant difference in bass response and generally overall better sound.  Friends that frequently listen with me also thought there was a big difference from upgrading to the VPI.
     be sure to look for used here on audiogon. 
     lots of good options VPI, TTWeights, ClearAudio --> sky is the limit

rest of my set up -->  
· Threshold FET 9 pre-amp
· Threshold CAS1 amp
· Totem Hawk speakers
· Sunfire SDS8 sub
· Richard Gray Power Company 400S AC Line Conditioner
- NittyGritty record cleaner
  

Your Ortofon Black would benefit from a better turntable/arm. The new Technics tables/arms, as suggested here, definitely sound good with the 2M series. An added bonus would with the Technics is that it would allow you to swap out another headshell with the 2m white mono cartridge an you could enjoy mono records too.