Question about Ortofon OM cartridges

A few months ago I bought a U-Turn Orbit Plus turntable that came with an Ortofon OM 5e cartridge. I messed up the stylus, due to being a total novice and to not having the cue lever (which I now have). I went to my local audio store and decided to upgrade to the OM 10 stylus. I'm happy with the sound for now but had a question about the future, when I might want to upgrade again.

I've been looking at the higher levels in this series - 20, 30, and 40 - and there's something I'm not getting. Is there one base OM cartridge but different styli? Or are these all different cartridges? I know that I could order an OM 40 stylus and affix it to my current cartridge, but I'm also seeing OM 40 cartridges for sale. Is that an entirely different cartridge from what I have, or is it just the same one + the OM 40 stylus? If it is a different cartridge, would I really need to get it or could I just get the stylus and hear more or less the same effect?

And on that note– how much of a sound quality improvement would I hear if I upgraded the stylus? I'm wondering if anyone's compared the 10 to the higher numbered OMs. They're ridiculously expensive so I wouldn't want to spend my money on something if I could only hear a slight improvement!

 

You can fit any OM stylus (10,20,30 etc.) to the cartridge on your turntable, I wouldn't bother going further than the 10 on a turntable such as yours. OM 20/30/40 are fantastic, but you would need to fit it onto a much better player, like a higher end Dual or Technics to reap it's benefits, IMO.

 

With an Orbit, you could probably get to the 20 and hit the diminishing returns point. A 30 or 40 is certainly overkill for that table.

 

Thanks for the advice! Appreciate it.

 

I don't think his question was answered. Is the cartridge body itself the same across the board and just the stylus is different or are the cartridge bodies better as you go up the line too?

I'm curious as well.

 

The OM5e body is not the same as the Super OM-10/20/30/40 body. The coils are a little different but not drastically. The higher-end styli are compatible with the cheaper bodies. The OM5e body is basically just an original OM (pre-Super) body.

 

OM 5e body + 5e stylus is the 'lowest' quality. Adding a 10/20/30/40 stylus will get a better cartridge but not as good as the OM 10Super body + 10/20/30/40 stylus. I agree that on your turntable the 20 stylus is about as high as you should consider (or a 2M Blue in Ortofons' later range).

I have used various of the OM/2Ms over the years (5e, 10Super, 10Super with 30 stylus, 2M Black, 2M Black with Bronze & Blue Styli). The 10 Super with 30 stylus sounds closest to a 2M Bronze & I guess the 40 would be closest to the Black or the 20 the Blue. However the 2M series did seem to track better on my turntables than the OMs & I would say that they had a more sophisticated sound signature (neutral bordering on CD like). I use Audio Note these days.

......as an aside, the OM stylii do fit onto & work with the 2M bodies but they look dog ugly & I can't imagine many people doing this!

 

It's probably overkill for your table. but get away from mm cartridges. mc is where you need to go.

 

I never liked the looks of the OM series cartridges. That jarting design doesn't do it for me.