Turntable Cartridge upgrade question.

Whatever you end up doing, I hope it suits you well. I happen to disagree with this:

The answer is: pretty much any good brand and quality MC outperforms good quality MM.

- as I have some MI cartridges that will give any MC a run for their money (London Deccas). But money isn't the best way of judging quality: I have in the last few days revisited a pair of $5k cartridges, both MI, which I can swap in to replace a $1k MP-500. And I ended up wondering why I bothered to buy more SME 309 headshells for them. The Grado Statement 3 is perhaps being libelled by me. It has no character, and perhaps that is a desirable characteristic. The Soundsmith Sussurro is livelier, more detailed, but suffers from a lack of bass when run through my VAS SUT. The MP-500 sounds better than either of them. Now I write this with my ear corrupted by Benz Micro LP-S warmth. That has become important to me, and I keep wondering if I should use my mono-converted Ruby 3 for everything (I don't hear stereo having only one ear). At the end of it all, as long as we like what we hear, we should be satisfied.

is there any other brand worth looking in to ? 

@ssg308 sorry, I didn't see your question until now. But yes, there are lots of other good cartridges and brands, but it's more of a known quantity to move up an Ortofon model line given you like the 2M Black.

But the real answer is the fact that in my case changing just cartridge makes little or non noticeable improvement, I need new cartridge and new phono stage....

I'm not really sure that was what came across in the thread.

Invariably people start talking about what they like best and how you could upgrade all sorts of things to improve your sound or to bring out the best in all your gear, but I really do think upgrading your cartridge and keeping all your other existing equipment can still give you a noticeable improvement.

I run three systems with turntables and one is a less sophisticated one that I wanted a lower priced MC cartridge in so I installed a Goldring Eroica LX and have been quite pleased with it.  That might be a good way to see if heading into MC will be a good move for you.

Another way might be to find another hobbyist looking to move further up and willing to sell his current pickup to fund the move.  I use a Lyra Clavis like that in a second system.

A third way is to buy a complete turntable with even higher end pickup, used. I've done that too - bought a table with a Koetsu Urushi for less that half what the cartridge alone would have cost at the time.  You can keep or sell on the rest of the table.

@deadhead1000 how is that sound different ?