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
Dearn @neonknight : "" It may very well be possible that there are a level of differences that my system is not up to the task of presenting. ""

Overall you own very good system. Your main cartridges are really good but I don’t know if are mated with the " rigth " tonearm. I owned the 505 not my cup of tea, I owned the 5 that’s is better tonearm. I had experiences with the SOTA TTs that are very good units but not with your other 2 TTs.

Maybe you could be rigth in your statement and maybe you can get higher resolution with some changes or fine tunnig in your analog rig.

In the other side your speakers woofer crossover is at 750 hz so in theory that driver is running with frequencies around 28hz-30hz to maybe 850hz-900hz, this is a wide range and the developed IMD is high and does not permits better resolution/definition on the critical reproduced frequencies in that range.

I don’t know if you use your subs as a reinforcing/go deep bass or if you are using its high pass filter to liberate the speakers of bass frequencies to lower the IMD and in this way achieve a better resolution/definition where it matters the most. This is that the subs handle frequencies from around 90hz and below it and the 4365 from 90hz and up. Doing this is critical for room/system higher overall quality performance levels.

R.
@lewm 
Dover, "Forever"? Really?
Yes - check your American-English Merriam-Webster dictionary,
its an adverb, see defnition number 2

forever adverbfor·​ev·​er | \ fə-ˈre-vər  , fȯ-; Southern often fə-ˈe-və \Definition of forever

 (Entry 1 of 2)

1: for a limitless timewants to live forever

2
: at all times : CONTINUALLYis forever making bad puns

This should be an interesting experiment. I was attempting to purchase the matching T3000 transformer from a seller on UKAudiomart, but he never responded. 
In the process of looking around I came across a Conrad Johnson HV1. This is an active head amp but it uses Nuvistor tubes. Very few components do use this gain device, and all of them that I have heard sound remarkable. The price was quite reasonable, so I bought it last night. Should have it in about 5 to 7 days, and we are going to give it a shot with the MC3000. 

This seems to be a forgotten head amp but was well received in the day. One owner posted it can be a bit microphonic, I wonder if that is due to the tubes they had installed. I also am curious if it inverts phase like some CJ components do, and if so I will take care of that at the cartridge leads as inverting speaker wires is a pain in the butt. 

Should be a grand experiment!
Back in “the day”, head amps were perhaps more common than SUTs for augmenting phono gain to levels required for LOMC cartridges. One of the best was the Counterpoint SA2, which was all tube. I owned one for a while. It was a bit noisy but mine could have had a problem I was not capable of detecting back then. I think NYAL had one that used nuvistors. Mark Levinson had a solid state model. Let us know how yours works out.