suggestions on MM to MC upgrade

I've gone from MC to the Virtuoso and feel no need to return.In recent years I've used the Benz MC 2,Dynavector 20X,Ortofon X5 MC and Kontrapunkt B among others.The Virtuoso Wood sounds better in my set-up(Acoustic Signature Manfred with stock RB 250)than any MC I've tried.I also like the Ortofon 2M Blue and Bronze which I am using on vintage Dual CS 5000 tables.

Hi, of those mentioned the Jubilee and Kontrapunkt c are
without any question the best. I have seen the Jubilee for
less then $1000.

Regards,

Dear Gxleetw: +++++ " suggestions on MM to MC upgrade " +++++

Certainly you have several roads to achieve a real upgrade for what today is the quality performance on your analog rig, not only with a cartridge change but even with a different tonearm or better phono stage.

But if you choose to go for a cartridge you can improve what you have staying with the MM/MI alternative with cartridges like:
Ortofon M20FL Super, Nagaoka MP-50, Ortofon M20E Super, Garrot P-77i, Grace F-9E etc, etc.
These unexpensive cartridges IMHO even or beats any of those MC cartridges ( btw, I agree with all those post here and I'm not trying to degrade those opinions. ) but the Concerto that I never had the opportunity to hear it.
IMHO if you want to go on the MC road and want to even or beat any of the cartrridges I name here you need to go higher on the LOMC alternative: ZYX Universe, Dynavector XV-1s, Ortofon A-90, etc, etc but these excellent LOMC cartridges needs to be mated to an excellent phono stage too.

Maybe if you tell in specific what are looking for to improve or what are your targets on quality performance be more easy to help you.

because you say: ++++++ " sounds wonderful - may be a bit on the rich side, but it sounds great to me " +++++, so you are really satisfied, many us maybe can't say: " my system sounds wonderful "!!!!!!!

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Dear all,

Thanks for your gracious comments. Much appreciated.

Dear Rauliruegas,

I am actually very new to analog - too young to grow up with them, didn't believe how good the vinyl sound can be, until hearing a LP-12 with ATOC9 at my friend's place. His system is my only reference now, because there is no shop in town carry analog demo :( On the other hand, ignorance of how it can sound even much better is probably a bless too :)

Music taste is 99%+ classical - instrumental, vocal, orchestra, opera. Compared to my friend's sytem (AC OC9 + Linto), I think mine doesn't have that much of "airy" quality, but sound more "organic" - which I really like. Also, his OC9 seems to deliever more details. However, both may be partially becuase of the table setup - I am still very new to LP-12 and I know my suspension setup is far from perfect.

In short, the sound I am looking for is having more details while maintaining the organic feel as my Clearaudio Virtuoso delivers. Since I got a good Linto deal a while ago, MC route becomes an option. Arm upgrade to Ekos is over budget - plus I don't want Linto sitting idle there.

Dear Gxleetw see your point. I only posted that because it is not easy to achieve a " wonderful " sound ( of course that there are different quality levels of " wonderful ". ) and this could means that some way or the other you have Synergy on your system and this is a critical and very important characteristics that everyone is looking for.
Sometimes adding a " better " audio item could broke that Synergy so be very careful on your system changes.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.