Just bought an Ortofon 2M Black

The cart is old. It's the phono preamp that is new. Listened for a few hours via headphones. Sounded real good. Anybody have any idea how long the break in period should be?

 

Kids and warm weather may put this all on the backburner but I still need to get some more listening time on my new 2M Black. I haven't touched it in a couple of weeks now and only played 5 or 6 records when I first reviewed upthread. I want to play with some of the settings to see if I can still squeeze out a little more. Currently everything's still set at my default: 1.5 Tracking Force, 1.5 anti-skate and 2mm on the RB-700 arm using Rega Stevenson.

 

I now love the 2M Black. All the negative aspects are long gone. It was a great choice, I never came back to my other cartridges.

I'm considering a better phono stage to go with it. I have a good entry level one (Musical Fidelity V90 LPS) but I want something more capable. Maybe the MX-VYNL from the same brand but I would how much of an upgrade it would be.

 

Today I heard a weird distortion on the left channel of a record and swapped the 2M Black for the Blue to see if I would hear the same distortion. I did hear it so it’s the record.

By the way, the only thing I heard similarly was the distortion. Everything else was different. I was impressed how pallid, quiet and lifeless the Blue sounded after hearing the Black everyday in the last three weeks. It’s really night and day.

 

So great to hear! I am constantly in awe of this art and it’s excellence!

 

When my 2M Black was brand new, I found the need to run it tail down, and quite a bit, not only slightly. I used two 4mm rubber mats and set VTA to -0,5 (you know, minimum VTA in the PLX-1000 is a little below zero) to get better results.

Not that I had used it for almost one month and it had broken in, it's sounding much better with the rubber mat only and VTA to zero, parallel to the platter.

 

Thanks to @Mugrug12 , I now have installed a 2M Black after running a 2M Bronze since December... after having run a 2M Silver for two years... after having run a 2M Blue for two years before that. Here are my humble thoughts.

I must say, this is the finest stylus I have owned. When I got the Bronze in December, I immediately noticed how the midrange stabilized. Vocals sounded so solid, it tracked amazingly well, and everything tightened up. It was a huge step up from the Silver, but it had been too long since playing a non-worn Blue, that I cannot compare the Blue much anymore (other than knowing I really liked it more than the Silver!).

The Black is a much more refined Bronze. Everything has stabilized. The bass is SUPER tight and extended, the high end has a sparkle (perhaps not as much as I had anticipated) and the high end also is less fatiguing in my setup than the Bronze, meaning I can turn it up louder if I choose to. Micron dynamics is a blast to listen for. When I got the Bronze, I found listening for micro dynamics just as fun, because the nude fine line being superior to the Silver's Elliptical. There truly is stuff in those grooves I haven't heard before.

As for surface noise, the surface noise I experienced with the Bronze is now more pronounced with the Black, but it has not introduced new surface noise, really. In fact some well-known SN has diminished with the Black, likely due to the shibata reaching past some surface damage.

Sibilance has lessened than that over the Bronze, but not on every LP. The track "Mas Que Nada" from the first Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 LP is notorious for having sibilance, and when I played it yesterday, It was the first time I had heard it without any trace. I always thought it was used on the Shure Test LP because it was inherent in the recording, but it was not the case yesterday.

I installed my 2M Bronze by hand using a printed Baerwald from Vinyl Engine, a tiny bubble level for azimuth, an ancient test LP from a thrift store, the rinky-dink Ortofon plastic VTF scale that came with my Bronze, and LOTS of tweaking from listening to memorized tracks. Right now I see no reason to tweak for the Black. Does this mean I have managed to perfectly set it up? That would be cool, but I doubt it. I have a HiFi News LP coming in the mail, so I will run it through its courses and see what happens. But as of right now, my 2-channel analog system is pretty golden for me and I don't have a desire to step into the moving coil world. A new VPI is in the distant future, but right now the only thing I want is more VG+ and better LPs.

I would recommend anyone who is really pleased with the sonic signature of their 2M Bronze but needs to replace their stylus due to stylus age, etc. to consider upgrading to the 2M Black when that time comes. ***cough*** @Bananas&blow ***cough***

 

That is impossible, don't you know that "break in" is just all in your head. Congrats on your new cart. Some folks just dont have the patience to let the suspensions limber up.

 

Lol, shut up and take my money!

 

Oh boy, he perfect alignment is a tricky thing. I thought I had it a while ago but decided to get it done properly and what a difference that made. All sorts of other adjustments I never thought of. But the main one being VTA.

Also: if you’re happy and can listen for hours? Then that’s a win! Enjoy!

 

Since my last post a week ago, I've realigned again, this time using a Baerwald protractor. I also added another Acoustic fidelity arm spacer...these things are awesome and I think it took all of 1 minute.
The 2M Black sounds breathtaking! I played Phone Booth from Robert Crays Bad Influence and I've had this record for 30 years yet I'm hearing bass strings vibrate on the frets that I never noticed before. Killer detail. There's only about 10 hours on this Black and I just can't fathom how it could sound any better.

 

I recently got a Ortofon OM cartridge and put a jico shibata on it......and OMG it's amazing!! So much soundstage and detail, and it's not even broken in yet

If my OM cart with Shibata sounds that good, i can only imagine how the black rocks!

 

In my experience 10 hours is enough. Changes from now on should be more subtle. You'll possibly have a bit more bass and it may sound less bright in the next 10-20 hours but the main changes had already happened.

 

I will likely play with the VTA once the HiFi News shows up. There aren’t any HiFi shops in my town anymore, so I would need to take it out of town to have it checked. Quite a bummer. I would love to have all my styli checked for wear as well!

 

Hey, fellow Torontonian!! So happy you’re loving the 2M Black. Yep, breathtaking is about right.

I sound like a broken record (ha!) but fornalignment I can’t recommend John at My Kind of Music enough. No one else in Toronto that sets up carts and tables to the degree with which he does.

I though I’d aligned mine properly but after his installation, I was dead wrong!

Food for thought.

 

I was under the impression that the black was not compatible with a blue cartridge and vice versa. It’s red/blue and bronze/black.

 

It's compatible just not optimal ortofon says.

 

I swapped the whole cartridge/stylus combo. I never used black stylus in blue body nor vice versa.

 

Gotcha. Happy listening! I’ve got the bronze now and hope someday to upgrade to black.

 

Thanks and noted. I think I remember that guy from years back! BTW- I sent you a pm.

 

Add my vote for My Kind of Music too.

 

Forums encourage audio nervosa I'm afraid - "no reason to tweak" but we do it anyway. Try to enjoy what you have -

Listen, don't read!

 

You have no idea how often I listen, so I am going to consider your post which quoted me as uninformed and irrelevant in telling me how to enjoy this hobby.

But I will comment on you quoting my interaction with a fellow SHF member:

My shout out and wink to @Bananas&blow was because he and I have been on a similar upgrade journey that he and I have discussed in other threads. I know already that he has interest in upgrading to the 2M Black (see this thread) and when he is ready to upgrade due to his current stylus wearing out, I recommend he consider the Black.

 

Easy guys. No need to get worked up over the color of my cartridge. Although I secretly (or not so) love the attention. I'm sure I'll get the black at some point.

 

I use the same test disc to setup cartridges. My 2m black nailed everything except the final bias track. I've had five cartridges and couldn't track that test on any of them w normal tracking force!
I don't think there's really anything to check vta on the record but maybe I'm wrong...