Today I had the brilliant idea to put my Ortofon 2M Black on a better headshell than the generic Technics-like I was using. I started removing the lead wires from the cartridge... 1, OK. 2, OK. 3 and 4... Bl##dy hell!!!!! While gently removing the leads with the tweezers, the blue and red pins CAME OUT of the bl##dy cartridge. At the age of 44, and with a certain experience in handling cartridges (I have installed at least 8 of them), this is the first time it happened to me. At first I blamed my clumsiness. Then I googled, I saw that at least 4 other guys around the world have had the same misfortune with the 2M series. It seems that the b##ggers at Ortofon have the funny habit of not securely attaching the pins to the plastic cartridge body: they are just stuck in, and connected to the innards via a thin wire. So when you remove the leads, if you pull a bit too much, the pins get loose and the internal wire gets broken. And putting the pins back doesn't fix it: the cartridge is broken for good. I am extremely disappointed with Ortofon's build quality: first the stylus guard that broke after 2 months (and it seems that it happens to everyone sooner or later), and now this. I have written to Ortofon, and I'll see what they'll reply. But judging from previous replies to the other owners who had the same accident, it looks like I'm stuck with it because Ortofon refuses to fix it if the warranty period has elapsed. Soooooo... lesson learned, now what will I do if Ortofon refuses to repair my cartridge? 1) Sell the stylus to someone who already has a 2M Black or a Bronze (and then forget Ortofon forever). My stylus has 280 hours on it, so it still has plenty of life left. How much could I ask for it? 2) Buy a 2M Bronze (much cheaper than a Black), and keep using my Black stylus on it, keeping the Bronze stylus as replacement If I choose option 2, I have the option of getting the cartridge pre-mounted on an Ortofon shell. I have a Technics SL-1210 MKII: do the premounted Ortofons work well? I see that the Ortofon headshell is rather heavy....
The headshell with the pre mounted Bronze is nice except for the fingerlift being rather short, I suggest you see one in the flesh before buying it as for some it could be a problem. I've mounted a few 2Ms for people, but never a black, never had a problem and the threaded body is very helpful, but I have noticed some tight pins so I guess I've been lucky so far, I'll be very careful in future.
They'll repair I'm sure, but don't know if it will be free or not. I'd sell the bugger either way. If you can handle the AT OC9iii, it smokes it at a lower price point, and if you cannot the Grado Sonata HO version also bests it at a lower price point. Rebuild is cheaper on these than a new stylus for the 2M Black as well. Good luck with whichever path you choose.
I've the Red, Bronze and Black, (Sold the Bronze) and never had the problems you had. So I don't know if its all that common.
Of course I am willing to pay, the cartridge is 5 years old. But MC is not an option, I am an MM guy: my other cartridges are an Audiotechnica AT440MLa and a Nagaoka MP-500. I was curious about Grados (HO) and Goldring 2500 too.
I'd contact them first, see what they say and go from there. If poor experience, report back here, go option 1 and get a goldring. If good, repair and use one of your other carts. I know someone who pulled a brand new bronze out of the box and it was missing (yes you've read that right--missing) two of the connector pins. Nowhere to be found--not in the box, not inside the body.
The 2500 is a Goldring spec'd Nagaoka. Output is much higher than Nagaoka's own cartridges and the stylus is different also. I wouldn't expect it to be "better" than the MP-500 since the basic design is the same, but it will probably be "different".
Get rid of it. The AT33PTG/II absolutely kills it IMO, and for less money. Frankly it is hard to express how impressed I have been with this cartridge for its price.
I had the same thing happen with an old Stanton 600ee. When de-mounting the cartridge one pin was about 1/32 longer. Sure enough that coil was open. Two ways to prevent this from happening. Have a dedicated headshell for each cartridge. When installing a new cartridge make sure the tone arm connectors are not overly tight on the cartridge pins. If it takes excessive pressure to start the connectors on the cartridge pins open up the connectors slightly so they still fit snugly but can easily be removed if necessary. I have some that went on so tight I'll never attempt to remove them. Decent lightweight stamped aluminum headshells are available on Ebay for $8.50 shipped. I've purchased five so far and have no issues. The locating pin was correctly installed on all of them.
Best advice EVER, I had reached the same conclusion. And it's a thing I have always done... if it wasn't that yesterday I wanted to install the Black on a better headshell. Anyway, I asked around, and the cost of a repair would be higher than that of a new 2M Bronze/Black body. So today I found a good price on a new Bronze, and grabbed it. So now I will have the freedom of switching between a new Bronze stylus and the old Black stylus. I have installed it a couple of hours ago, and may I say that it doesn't lack anything to my ears compared to the Black? And if I may be honest, it seems to pick up less surface noise... I can't understand those who say that the Gold is bright and the Black is more relaxing: for me the Gold is not bright at all (but I have a slightly warm chain), and on the contrary it was the Black stylus that sometimes sounds a bit aggressive on cymbals to my ear.
For the benefit of anyone following and as a cautionary tale for future generations @Luca can you describe how this happened? ie: were you pulling on the lead wire/tab as opposed to clamping onto the pin and the lead at the same time? Did you pull straight out or twist and pull to remove, etc. I currently have and love a 2M Black but must have installed hundreds of cartridges in my time (including 20 years in audio retail) and have never seen this happen. PS: I assume your above referencing of "Gold" is actually "Bronze"
Yep, sorry! It was meant to be Bronze! Nothing out of the ordinary in my procedure: hair pincers on the leads to pull them out. No twisting, no grabbing the pins. Gentle but firm pulling. What puzzled me is that I would expect the pins to have some sort of mechanical securing to the cartridge body. And yet, none of that: they are not anchored mechanically, just pushed inside. They don't even seem glued, just smooth pins in the cartridge body. I like Ortofon and their sound, but somehow it seems like they could improve the robustness of their design.
A million people buy Ortofon 2M cartridges, 4 people on the internet report they pulled the pins out and you kick it to the curb?
How do you every buy anything? Every wonderful, fabulous restuarant I've ever dined at, every car I've bought and certainly every audio device I've ever bought has at least four bad reviews. For the record, I've owned and used a 2M Bronze for several years and I gave it to my son, along with a replacement stylus. Neither of us had any difficulty at all.
Exactly. I work for FCA. If people stopped buying our cars just because someone found faults in them, I would be out of a job. I like the Ortofon sound, so I am giving them one more chance, and I will be careful next time. Is that design of the pins a bad one? Sure it is, and at least I wish they would take note and correct it. But they don't exactly made bad cartridges, not at all.
It works well enough.... I have a 2M Red PNP (the single unit cart/headshell offering) which I sometimes use on a Techie 1200G, it does fantastically well on raw heavy rock music. The diamond sits just about 1mm forward of the where it should be according to the Technics alignment gauge. Still sounds great though. But most of the time when I am using my 2M Black (not the PNP version) or my other MC carts, I align on the Technics gauge and I have them in their own dedicated headshells. I use the smaller of the additional counterweights on the arm when I use the 2m Red PNP. The PNP carts look great on the Technics, they are like the SPUs of the MM world. But I prefer to have the freedom to align it myself and know its right for the 2M black.
I have listened to the Bronze for a few hours. I definitely like it more than the Black, which is surprising. I don't find anything lacking compared to the Black (frequency extension, dynamics, liveliness...), and it seems slightly more neutral to me. The quietness in the grooves is impressive, something I had never had with the Shibata of the Black. I am playing a 1963 copy of Duke Ellington's "Back to back" (Verve) inherited from my father, and it's dead quiet in the silent parts. If I had known the Bronze was so good, I never would have bought a Black 5 years ago.
