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

So I have owned quite a few Otofon cartridges over the years, everything from the modest OM cartridges to a couple of Cadenza up to an A90. I typically enjoy Ortofon cartridges.

Now one I have never owned is the MC2000. It seems from a bit of reading I have done that owners of the MC2000 felt it was the most accurate of the Ortofon cartridges, and that releases after it were not its equal.

However, when you look at the MC3000 it has a higher output level that would allow it to work with my Esoteric phono stage. The Esoteric is happy running an MC200 on it which has .09 mV output. but the MC2000 is .05 mV. The MC 3000 MK II is .13 mV from what I find.

Has anyone spent time listening to these classic MC 000 series of Ortofon cartridges? I know there is also a 5000 and 7500, but those seem to be pretty rare.

Regarding the MC2000, I wonder if I use a low mass headshell if I can use it on the Dynavector DV505. I don’t think the mass of the arm in the horizontal plane should affect it, and the vestigial arm can be configured to be an appropriate match for the compliance on this cartridge.

I currently have an MC200u on the arm and its very surprising regarding how good it sounds. Its actually pretty neutral, pretty expressive, but just a bit relaxed in the top end. I certainly enjoy it, but I wonder how these statement cartridges from the classic Ortofon line will sound. These would have been from their long time designer who has now retired, so its a different era of Ortofon versus what their current offerings are. Even though we should acknowledge that the current cartridges use design principals that were developed from this earlier time period and engineering team. 

Thoughts?
neonknight
neonknight OP
392 posts
 
@best-groove  

Oh that would be very cool indeed! In my searching I never found a reference to sintered aluminum for this cartridge, the best I could do is what Ortofon called black sapphire. The searches for information regarding the Ortofon X000 series cartridges always brought up a legacy page that showed all the Ortofon cartridges but none ever talked about body material. 

https://www.ortofon.com/ortofon-%C2%B4000-series-p-690

If you have any more in depth info you could share regarding the MC 3000 MK II I would love the be able to read it. Please don't read this as me doubting you, I just would like to acquaint myself with all the facts and info I can find on the cartridge as I do enjoy it.  I can see myself acquiring a 7500 also, although the MC2000 is getting rare enough, and the cantilever fragile enough that it might be tough to find a good specimen. 
best-groove's avatar
best-groove
842 posts
 
Oh that would be very cool indeed!

Well, now I'm at work but give me a few hours and when I get home I take a picture and put it in view.
edgewear
543 posts
 
@neonknight the manual of MC5000 says it uses the unique aluminium oxide housing material originally introduced in MC3000. It continues: "Aluminium oxide can be formed into a ceramic substance by sintering at a temperature of 1600 Celsius to become as hard as porcelain. The articularly hard properties of the material may be better understood when you consider that on the Moh scale, diamond has a hardness factor of 10. On the same scale, aluminium oxide, ruby and sapphire have a hardness factor of almost 9". The idea is that any resonances appear at frequencies far above the audible range.

neonknight OP
392 posts
 
@edgewear   

Ah very enlightening! I wonder what they mean by "ceramic substance" and perhaps that phrase has given rise to the thought it was a ceramic body. I wonder if there are really any practical and real world improvements to the SLM technique that Ortofon is using on their current top tier cartridges. The MC7500 shows that body built from titanium also. If so, I wonder if a system at my level of quality is able to fully portray those improvements. 

Funny how these things occur. I recently saw a MC5000 from a UK dealer who obtained it from Ortofon Treasure Trove, and has 50 hours. I am seriously thinking about inquiring and see if they will sell to a buyer in the US. In the past I have had the Cadenza Blue, and appreciated that cartridge along with other cartridges that have sported gemstone cantilevers. The 5000 is fitted with sapphire as I read it, but otherwise is the same as the 3000 MK II. 

Worth considering...


neonknight OP
392 posts
 
From what I read somewhere the MC3000 MK II uses the same body as the original MC300, so I went back to that review to gather some construction info. That info tracks what the owners manual says.

"The magnet material was changed to a more powerful material called neodymium (it used to be an alloy of samarium and cobalt) and moved closer to the coils, which doubled the cartridge's output. And because the stronger magnetic field might have an adverse effect on motions of the original aluminum armature (footnote 1), the 3000's armature is made of carbon fiber. Even the outer casing material was changed, from aluminum to aluminum oxide. This sintered (fired) ceramic compound has a hardness of 9 Mohs, 1 unit below that of a diamond's 10. The harder a material, the higher its natural resonating frequency; the new case is an attempt to get this out beyond the audible range without having to resort to a diamond case."


So aluminum oxide is really hard stuff. They also make cantilevers out of it also as I recall. Very interesting stuff, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. 
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