Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintage Pete
Glenn.....it's interesting you should say that. When I bought the table in 1984, I purchased with it an Ortofon MC10 Moving coil cartridge. At the time, I was still using my Crown IC-150A preamp, which did not have an MC input. So, I bought along with it an STM-72 matching transformer (the MC10 and STM-72 actually came as a kit). I loved the cartridge, and in fact I used it for 32 years. (I moved up the McIntosh C40 preamp, but alas, it did not/does not have an MC input). I continued to use the STM-72 matching transformer right along, but after a time I started having problems with it-the main problem being the RCA jacks were too close together on the end of the cylindrical body, and so eventually I had signal drop outs, and/or hum issues. I really needed to lose that STM-72, but didn't want to spring for a (likely pricey) separate phono stage. That led to my decision to try the 2M black MM cartridge. I figured Ortofon's top MM model may well outperform my 32 year old MC10. I wasn't disappointed...the 2M Black is at least as good as the old MC10, possibly better.
Having said all this, I still do entertain the idea from time to time of moving up to an MC again, with, say the McIntosh MP100 phono stage. By the time I'm done with all that I'll probably be on the hook for $3-4K. Sure I could buy a new TT for that much, but there would still be the phono stage issue.
To upgrade my C40 preamp would be quite a big deal in terms of cost and the complexity of reconfiguring my setup. The C40 has really served me well for about 23 years now...
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Oh I don't know the Ortofon black is pretty well liked. You could just enjoy it. If you did decide to upgrade, why not upgrade the tt and then move the Orty to the new table?
Case in point, I upgraded to a Dynavector DV10x5 on my Technics SL1300 Mk2 a few years ago (it was my main tt for 26 years sir) and just fell in love with that combo piped into the MM input of my C200. I bought an Avenger from Ivan a short time ago and moved the DV10x5 to it. I'm likely at the top of what I can expect from the DV10x5 (lol) but damn it sounds sweet! So, I've got two things to look forward to - a cartridge upgrade on the Avenger and putting the DV10x5 BACK on the SL1300 Mk2.