Feedback on Monster Alpha 2 Cartridge

I agree with Qdrone's comments. The 2000 is the one to find; fantastic cartridge. Mine needs to be retipped after years of service on a ET2. But, you asked about the Alpha 2 which I owned years ago before owning the 2000 along with, among many others, the AT OC9. I have to respectfully disagree with Bpoletti. In my system and for my tastes, the Alpha 2 was an infinitely better cartridge than the OC9. In fairness, my OC9 was not the /II. My Alpha 2, which definitely sounds in character like a relative of the 2000, was more detailed, had better bass extension and had much more stable imaging than the OC9 which always sounded more hi-fi'ish to me in spite of the Alpha's top end that could sound, as Qdrone points out, a little zippy if not set up properly. The OC9 was arguably "smoother" sounding but had an overall bright glaze to the sound that I found annoying. My OC9 had larger images than the Alpha 2 which could make it sound "fuller", but did not reach as deep in the bass. IMO, the AT was a good solid mid-level cartridge; the Alpha 2 was a true high-end cartridge with a couple of flaws that could be improved on with careful set up and that were obvious in part because it did other things so well. Not a 2000 'though.

Frogman...thank you very much for your extended feedback. Very helpful. The only reason I am contemplating the Alpha 2 is because it's being offered to me from the personal stash of the vinyl expert at Goodwins whom I implicitly trust who says it's in excellent condition and still has 2-3 years of continuous playing time on it and that it was a SOTA design when it came out. Otherwise, I would never consider buying a used cart sight unseen, especially a 20_ year old cart, so unfortunately I don't have the opportunity to buy an Alpha Genesis 2000 nor would I buy one unless it's coming from a trusted source like the Alpha 2 is.

Let me ask you this: do you think a current "mid-price" cartridge like a Dynavector 20X2 would be able to better the Alpha 2 overall, or would I still be better off trying the Alpha 2? I know it may be a hard question since you may not have heard the 20X2 but I guess what I'm really asking is given the advancements in cartridge designs and materials, wouldn't something like the 20X2 or a similar cartridge be more likely to deliver better overall SQ than a cartridge from 20+ years ago? I am assuming there have been advancements in things like magnets, styli designs and materials, etc...but it may be that innovations have been far and few in the past 20 years and that may not be the case (I have no idea what the answer is which is why I am throwing it out there)?

Thanks

Cmalak, the only Dynavector I have ever owned was a Karat Ruby many years ago, so I can't help you with that comparison. I am not very familiar with mid level cartridges of the recent past. After the AG2000 my cartridge purchases included a couple of Vandenhuls and Shelters and over the last few years I have been revisiting vintage MM's which can be quite excellent. I can tell you that in the price range we are talking about I would consider a used Shelter 501, while very different, to be in the same general class as the Alpha 2. At $400 an Alpha 2 from a trusted dealer seems like a solid deal to me. Good luck.

Frogman...thanks very much.