Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Looking for opinions on about $100 cartridges (Ortophon 2M Red, Grado Prestige?).

It will be going in my AT-LP120, which is still on the stock cartridge. My turntable is connected to my home theater, which is by no means amazing but gets the job done.
 
displayname said:
Audioquest Dragonfly? Not sure if it'll be enough power for the 4xx, but it's certainly highly rated and a generally affordable series.
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i tried one of those.. didn't hear a different on my M50s (couldn't control the volume without going into windows settings, and broke after a year

also i checked some sensitivity to voltage calculators and it seems the Fulla does have enough power for 4xx's
 
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jbspaulding said:
Looking for opinions on about $100 cartridges (Ortophon 2M Red, Grado Prestige?).

It will be going in my AT-LP120, which is still on the stock cartridge. My turntable is connected to my home theater, which is by no means amazing but gets the job done.
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I’ve been a big fan of the 2M Red, but have no basis of comparison to the Grado line. From everything I’ve read and seen people say on here, I don’t believe you can go wrong in either direction. I prefer the Ortofon line primarily because of how easy they’ve made it to swap/upgrade styli. For instance, you could buy the 2M Red cart now, then maybe down the road you want to jump to Blue and it’s as simple as sliding the old stylus off and popping a new one on.
 
jbspaulding said:
Looking for opinions on about $100 cartridges (Ortophon 2M Red, Grado Prestige?).

It will be going in my AT-LP120, which is still on the stock cartridge. My turntable is connected to my home theater, which is by no means amazing but gets the job done.
Click to expand...

sjaygray said:
I’ve been a big fan of the 2M Red, but have no basis of comparison to the Grado line. From everything I’ve read and seen people say on here, I don’t believe you can go wrong in either direction. I prefer the Ortofon line primarily because of how easy they’ve made it to swap/upgrade styli. For instance, you could buy the 2M Red cart now, then maybe down the road you want to jump to Blue and it’s as simple as sliding the old stylus off and popping a new one on.
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Having had the 2M red/blue and the grado gold I’d avoid the 2Ms and go for the best grado prestige you can afford.

I found the ortofons a bit bright and detailed for my ears, they could sound a bit harsh. I find the grados much warmer and relaxed in presentation and if they are compatible with your table I’d go that way.

the grados can also avail of a stylus swap to the better ones higher up the line and also to the much better 8mz stylus.
 
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My schiit Mani has a very noticeable hum with it

I think I need a grounding cable but dunno what to buy (it's either that or a cartridge issue)
 
kvetcha said:
You should be able to ground from the turntable to the Schiit.

edit: that should work. I believe they also sell grounding cables that have a plug on one end a fork on the other.
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ok.. just was wondering because i was also thinking of maybe getting an amplifier since i dont need the speakers that much (just needed a headphone jack)
 
duke86fan said:
ok.. just was wondering because i was also thinking of maybe getting an amplifier since i dont need the speakers that much (just needed a headphone jack)
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you could get a headphone amp like the schitt ones which allows you to switch between powering a set of headphones or directly feeding a set of powered speakers so that you can still have them as an option if the fancy takes you.
 
Joe Mac said:
you could get a headphone amp like the schitt ones which allows you to switch between powering a set of headphones or directly feeding a set of powered speakers so that you can still have them as an option if the fancy takes you.
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hmm.. maybe (though the idea of using a schiit magni with a turntable seems weird)
 
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duke86fan said:
Is this that kind of peg

Do I need an amplifier
View attachment 21567
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A wire from your turntable's grounding lug to the black one in the middle should do the trick.
If you want to be ghetto, you can slice open a spare power cord and use one of the wires from it (green is traditional for ground, but black is probably less visible). Then look for a proper grounding wire if you think it would help.
 
Hi,

I'm looking for advice to upgrade my secondary turntable, a Pro-ject Debut Carbon Esprit DC with pre-mounted Ortofon 2m red. I've already borrowed a 2m blue needle from a friend, and although it improved the sound a tiny bit for my ears, I'm not 130€-happy with it (the price of the needle here). So I did some more research... and encountered the Audio Technica VM 95 SH cartridge for 150€ new. Do you guys know and like this cartridge? Could my turntable fully exploit the potential of this cartridge? Or would that be an overkill? Or are there any alternatives that you guys could suggest?

Thanks for you help!
 
papaharzi said:
Hi,

I'm looking for advice to upgrade my secondary turntable, a Pro-ject Debut Carbon Esprit DC with pre-mounted Ortofon 2m red. I've already borrowed a 2m blue needle from a friend, and although it improved the sound a tiny bit for my ears, I'm not 130€-happy with it (the price of the needle here). So I did some more research... and encountered the Audio Technica VM 95 SH cartridge for 150€ new. Do you guys know and like this cartridge? Could my turntable fully exploit the potential of this cartridge? Or would that be an overkill? Or are there any alternatives that you guys could suggest?

Thanks for you help!
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I have that table and switched first from the red to the blue and then to the grado gold2. I am really happy with the switch, to my ears it’s a much warmer sounding cartridge. Looking to stylus upgrade to the 8mz next.
 
duke86fan said:
My schiit Mani has a very noticeable hum with it

I think I need a grounding cable but dunno what to buy (it's either that or a cartridge issue)
Click to expand...

Agree that it sounds like you’re just not grounding your deck, or using unshielded phono cables if it’s self grounded.

I will put it out there that some of the older Mani models have an admitted RFI issue, which based on factors of your environment can be emphasized more or less. Schiit has reportedly fixed this with a new revision but silently. If you’ve exausted all grounding related options (ie ground the table, to to Schiit if it’s not self grounded, ground the Schiit to amp if it still hums) it may be that.
 
apholden said:
A wire from your turntable's grounding lug to the black one in the middle should do the trick.
If you want to be ghetto, you can slice open a spare power cord and use one of the wires from it (green is traditional for ground, but black is probably less visible). Then look for a proper grounding wire if you think it would help.
Click to expand...
kvetcha said:
You should be able to ground from the turntable to the Schiit.

edit: that should work. I believe they also sell grounding cables that have a plug on one end a fork on the other.
Click to expand...
What ground on the turntable

Don't see that on my uturn
 
duke86fan said:
What ground on the turntable

Don't see that on my uturn
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don’t worry about a ground wire with the orbit. It’s grounds using the left RCA and shouldn’t have a separate ground wire attached to that lug.

do you have another set of rca cables that you could swap out to test and see if it’s an RCA Cable shielding issue.
 
Joe Mac said:
don’t worry about a ground wire with the orbit. It’s grounds using the left RCA and shouldn’t have a separate ground wire attached to that lug.

do you have another set of rca cables that you could swap out to test and see if it’s an RCA Cable shielding issue.
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No.. I'll buy some more premium ones in like months
 
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