Ortofon 2m Red vs Blue?

It should be dead easy to align because the shape of the Rega headshell is exactly same as the 2m body

 

I have not yet found a protractor that match the front exactly (Ortofon 2M/RB303). Which one do you use when you get this?

Even with Baerwald it will be like the pic below with the screws about 2mm from its top end slightly leaning inward the spindle. But never aligning with the front of the arm head shell.

 

Can't remember the

 

I used the rega protractor and as it sounds absolutely stunning, I shall not be moving it.
I did check with said protractor and the stylus was bang in the cente of the cross.
One thing I have done that's different is reduced the weight slightly, with sonic improvement, the cantilever is not that strong and the sound is better at 1.6g

 

OK, but as I remember it, the Rega is a single point protractor, so the stylus will always be able to hit the cross. Just checking that the body (or even better the cantilever) was also aligned to the grid lines while the stylus was centered on the cross?

As a doublecheck, you could get a Rega Stevenson arc protractor (pretty close to the Rega house alignment). It's easier to use, and while won't be exactly lined up to the Rega one, if it's miles off, something's not right on your original alignment.

BUT - if you're happy, that's the most important thing

 

I Gave up on the 2M Blue in my set up - in another set up it would be amazing!
The Gyrodec is lean and precise, the Techno arm is Bright, no amount of fiddling with loading
and capacitance gave me what I wanted - either showy and sibilant or tamed with extended top end loss!
Enter a Nagaoka MP200 and it was spot on in that set up (of course I am noticing different pressings and
engineered records - some excellent and some badly made) It sounds as the record was made - so if balanced it is balanced
and not sibilant and showy in the upper presence and mid treble.

 

It's out of production; however, I could print the bing image and use that?

 

PM on it's way, Prof.

 

Hmm, I can't start a conversation with you for some reason Prof.

Anyway - no, you can't use the Bing image. Scaling is absolutely critical.

You should go over to Vinylengine, and print off their Rega Arc Protractors (they have both Stevenson and Baerwald) and follow he instructions contained within.

 

Here's my 2M Blue mounted on an RB303 arm, using a Mint Protractor/Baerwald/very high magnification during setup/cantilever parallax adjustment - the alignment is very precise & seems to track everything without distortion. The cartridge body is actually a 2M Black and I swap stylii about when using the Blue for less serious listening. In this configuration, the Blue stylus sounds pretty close to the Black, much closer than the price difference would suggest. For the Black, I use 1.55 gms, the Blue 1.68 gms tracking force (digital scales)

 

I'm curious if the Blue stylus sounds the same with the Red/Blue body, or the Bronze/Black body?

 

I am not in a position to comment I'm afraid as I have only heard the 2M Black & Bronze/Black body+Blue stylus combo's. I do not own the Red/Blue body

 

Would you go out and buy a Red body and find out please?

 

There are a few needle drops on YT doing this comparison. For what it's worth

 

Identical to mine. Phew

 

The black body looks longer to my eye. Look how doubled up your wires are behind it, about the same as mine.
I agree with you about the tracking; 1.8 is way to heavy

 

I have the red body.
The blue stylus sounds more strident than the red sylus.

 

Wow, hope you did not damage it!

 

BLUE

 

Hmm, Im re thinking/checking my alignment, RP6/2M bronze. Im vastly different to the above pic in that where the third screw would go on a Rega cartridge lines up perfectly centre with its screw hole. In this pic above you can see the that it is set back significantly, as a result the cartridge sits back a mm or 2 from the top of the headshell. This represents a pretty big difference between this alignment and my own. I dont hear any problems necessarily, but looking at setups like this always get me wondering.

 

That pic looks exactly like how I have my 2m Blue set up. The outside edge is flush with the headshell and there is maybe about 2 mm of set back from the front of the headshell and the angles on the front of the cartridge and the headshell line up. I've heard it said that Ortofon made the 2m series to go with the Rega arms and I totally believe it.

 

Ok I might not be set up as good as I could be. That being the case shouldn't I be hearing issues though ?

 

Wait just noticed you used baerwald. So sounds like youve got it right. Baerwald pushes the cartridge more forward and it won't line up nicely with the Rega headshell.

 

What do you mean not line up nicely? You referring to the slight twist of the cartridge towards the spindle?
Yes, I aligned to Baerwald so maybe Im closer than I thought.

 

Yep that's exactly what I mean. Rega and Stevenson will line up with the headshell bend Baerwald is pushed further forward and has like a 2 degree twist inward. If you're hitting the null points on your mirrored protractor and not noticing any distortion I'd say you're probably spot on. Esecially with that stylus. If you were that far off I think it would let you know.