Advice needed on MC cartridges


I’ve an Ortofon Black 2M cartridge on my VPI Classic 2 turntable, It’s a moving magnet type cartridge with a Shibata stylus and cost about $700 when purchased. I could easily be wrong, but am under the impression that the Ortofon 2M Black is about as good as it gets with MM cartridges and if I wished to upgrade I’d need to be thinking about moving into a MC, moving coil, type.

So I’ve been trying to learn something about moving coil cartridges and what differences or improvements in sound quality might be obtained by using one. My integrated amp, a Luxman 507uX Mk2, has a built in phono stage and can play either type,

Generally speaking, how much more would need to be spent on a MC cartridge before a noticeable, or significant improvement, might be heard in sound quality over the Ortofon 2M’s performance? What improvements in performance might you obtain using one a better quality MC over the Ortofon 2M Black? And third, what MC cartridges might you recommend that would fit in performance and budget wise with a system composed of the above equipment plus Magico A3 speakers. My other equipment is a Marantz Ruby CD/SACD player and a Shunyata Denali Hydra power conditioner.

I’ve never heard a MC cartridge in use so would be interested in following your advice and recommendations to see if I can find a dealer or someone that might be able to demo one so I can hear what the differences might be in performance. Thank you for any responses or suggestions

Mike

skyscraper

Hana SL  mc cartridge for $750 is an easy recommendation. It is low-output with a Shibata stylus. It will work well with the Luxman mc input. Lower noise floor and more detail retrieval.

Have you thought of moving iron cartridges, Soundsmith has some great sounding MI. They also have lots of material on their web about the difference in cartridge  types. I see went from to a mc to a mi and am very be happy with my the results.

 

The AT VM750SH has much better separation than the Ort Black

There is that.

The AT MM & Ortofon HOMC I own I prefer to my Hana MC.

That’s all I got.

Jasonbourne52, I'll look up the HanaSL mc cartridge you recommended. Thanks

Johnto, I'm unfamiliar with MI cartridge so will go to the Soundsmith site to get educated about them.

Fuzztone, I'll look up the two cartridges you recommend as well. Thank you too.

Mike