Cartridge Recommendations

The Ortfon 2M Black is a very nice cartridge. Used to own a 2M myself. Only comment is that I found it bright and analytical, but many others have raved about it. If you liked the Virtuoso, you will LUV the Maestro. One of the best cartridges I ever owned -- just couldn't get it to work on my Classic.

I just got a Denon DL-S1 this week and am blown away by the cartridge. I have been lusting after one of the Lyra cartridges but no more. This Denon easily blows out the AT OC9ii cartridges that I have had. My OC9 easily bested the Denon 103r. The Denon DL-S1 has a low output, but your phono preamp has 60 db of gain which is supposed to be good enough. If you can run it with differential gain, your phono preamp has 66 db of gain which should easily be enough.

Bob

PS I am running my Denon with tubes that might color my recomendation.

Dear Nhs: Good that your Virtuoso broken because you have a great opportunity to re-tip with a better cantilever/stylus that the stock one that's not really good.

The Virtuoso Wood motor IMHO is an stellar one and when you make that re-tip no one of the Denons ( including the DL-S1 ) could beat it and many of the top LOMC ones neither.

Of course you can go with other cartridge but to be near the Virtuoso Wood re-tipped maybe you have to invest over 4K for the cartridge alone and you need to change your phonoline stage and your TT too.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Nhs, keep in mind Raul's opinions are just that.

Opinions.

There are many experienced analogists here that have years of experience. Also, your local dealer can be a valuable asset.

''Raul's opinions are just that''. The MM thread has more
then 6000 contributions but I can't remember that Raul was
wrong in one single case. Consistent and reliable during this whole thread. I don't agree always with his philosophy but I trust his ears for 100%.
I 'retiped' two Virtuoso's by Axel in Germany. One with pressure fitted nude line stylus in a tapered aluminum cantilever ; the other with the boron cantilever and hyper
elliptical stylus. Among 20 MM carts that I own (AT 180,
Signet 9cl included) those are my best carts. I bought the Virtuoso's because of Raul's recommendation. My advice is to retip by Axel with aluminum cantilever + line stylus
(+/- 160 Euro).
Regards,