Classic Ortofon Cartridges: The MC2000 MK II or the MC3000 MK II?

I agree with the general rule that Japan is the best place to look for cartridges made in Japan, but Ortofon might be an exception. Their products are and always have been very popular in Japan and they sold many there, especially SPU’s.

Most has already been said about MC2000. My sample came from the personal collection of a UK importer and was very sparingly used. So not NOS, but pretty close. I was apprehensive about the ridiculously low output, but in practice I can make it work without a hint of noise on both an Ortofon T3000 SUT and Boulder 1008 phono amp, both with total line level gain of 70dB. The sound is a benchmark of neutrality and it’s probably the best tracker I have in house.

The high compliance is probably the main reason the MC2000 sounds so good (and tracks so well) and generally considered quite a challenge in terms of tonearm synergy. Again I had my doubts, because my system and tonearms are tailored to low output, low impedance AND low compliance cartridges. But again in practice it turned out easy to work with. In a lightweight headshell it even works spendidly in a heavy gun like FR64S with the lighter W170 counterweight. For the record, the lightweight original MC2000 headshell was in silver and made of magnesium, but these didn’t survive the times very well. My sample and all others I’ve seen have what I’d call ’bleeding’, a kind of disintegrating of the material, including the threads that are supposed to hold the cartridge. Mine is useless, but I found a later black version of this headshell (also on chakster’s photo) that works perfectly.

The MC7500 was the first ever cartridge with titanium body and has 0,13mV output from 8N copper coils (unique as far as I know) and again a tapered aluminum cantilever with Ortoline stylus (not the Replicant 100, as in MC3000 and MC5000). And if you think the packaging of the MC2000 is lavish, think again and compare it with the leather handbag that came with MC7500. Even my wife, who normally doesn’t give a ’.....’ about my audio hobby, was impressed!

Although more congenial in terms of specs, the MC7500 is actually much more difficult to get right. You’ll need a headshell with azimuth adjustment (preferably the dedicated LH7500). The reason is very likely to be the stylus profile, which is unique (4x100 um instead of 5x100um of Replicant 100). But when you do get it right, I would rank it ever so slightly over the MC2000. It has the same kind of neutrality, but with a bit more detail (the stylus profile?) and a bit more slam (copper coils instead of silver coils?). Both are very special cartridges that can still compete head on with A90, A95 or even MC Anna.

Edgeware, your comments on the MC7500 vs MC2000 intrigue me. Maybe I need to try harder with my MC7500, but so far in my systems the MC2000 is best. Besides paying attention to azimuth, what else? What tonearms have you used? Thx.

The packaging style of those classic Ortofon is amazing. I remember huge clear display case cut like a Replicant-100 diamond.

German Audio Markt is a great market place if you are in Europe, sometimes you must be in Germany, it’s better if you speak German too :) There are local market place in Denmark where I bought some amazing cartridges even though the site is not designed for international buyers at all (but sellers are nice). Superb stuff available not only from Europe, but from Russia as well where the audiophile scene is pretty strong (however, the problem sometimes is language barrier). You can find almost everything high-end in Russia nowadays, especially in Moscow or St.Petersburg (two biggest cities).

As I said earlier the most important is who’s the seller. You can’t personally communicate with Japanese auction sellers at all if they are not on ebay. In my opinion personal communication with the seller direct is HUGE benefit for the buyer! If you can communicate with the seller you can ask to declare lower value for custom control, because in most countries in this world, except USA, the import tax is huge and it’s not good to declare full value for an old rare and expensive cartridge to pay additional 30% import tax.

For security reason paypal is a must (best buyer’s protection from scam).

Dear lewm, the MC7500 has a tendency to sound a little edgy or bright in the wrong set up. I think this has mostly to do with that Ortoline stylus profile. So spot on azimuth and SRA are crucial, but I assume you have that covered.

It took some time to find it, but the LH 7500 headshell made a very positive contribution and so did the LW-1000S leadwires. You would  think 7N copper would be the best match to the 8N copper coils (8N copper lead wires are not offered by Ortofon or anyone else I think), but these silver wires contribute to a neutral balance comparable to MC2000.

It sounds very good in FR64S (all my cartridges do, even the high compliance MC2000), but even better in Audiocraft AC-4400. And perhaps contrary to what one might expect, it likes the phono amp (at 500 ohm loading) better than the Ortofon T3000, which is basically the same as the dedicated T7500. Hope that helps.

Dear @neonknight  : I owned 3 MC2000 and owned/own/listened almost any Ortofon cartridge in my system, so certainly I like Ortofon designs.

""  It has to have the OEM cantilever. ""

Not really, it was not that aluminum cantilever what makes the real difference but the cartridge engine and suspension design . The MC2000 has an over 30cu on compliance and yes it's a really great cartridge tracker and along what I pointed out from this tracking abilities comes part of that very high quality performance.

In one of my samples I bended the cantilever  and time latter I decided to send to VdH to fix it.
I received it with boron cantilever and VdH stylus tip and as good as the original was/is the boron/Vdh  performs with better quality performance level with out loosing the original cartridge attributes.

So, you can buy it in almost whatever condition  ( about cantilever/stylus ) and you can send to Northwest or Expert stylus or Vdh to fix it.

My boron/Vdh was unique and probably the only one out there, I sold it. I'm not a collector but I owned and own a lot of cartridge just to know its " signature " quality level and obviously to enjoy MUSIC.

So, don't worry about that " original " word at least with the 2000.

 Now, the MK2 is a way different cartridge and there is no comparison but the 3000MK2 is something to listen and yes different than the MC2000 but not to different.

In the other side you can look for a second hand A90/A95 and you are " there " too with out be disturbing your self for that very low MC2000 output, its high weigth and very high compliance because you have to fix all these cartridge characteristics for the 2000 can shows it.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.