Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

duke86fan said:
thank you for this advice... i guess i have a lot of jealousy of better higher priced options and wondering if grass is greener of the other side.. the grado is doing pretty fine especially on this fiona apple record (except for on for her where it suddenly sounds muddy so maybe i will still go with the ortofon), i just have been inactive and having a hard time listening to music i love since everything is kinda... sleepy and boring
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There is no “other side.” No matter how green one’s grass is, someone will always have greener grass than you do. Enjoy the grass you have.

You should really look at the A/T VM95 series. You could start out with an EN stylus for very reasonable money. When it wears out, you can go greener if you want by upgrading the stylus to an ML or SH.
 
HiFi Guy said:
You should really look at the A/T VM95 series. You could start out with an EN stylus for very reasonable money. When it wears out, you can go greener if you want by upgrading the stylus to an ML or SH.
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you must REALLY have a feud with ortofon...

(that was a joke dont worry i just feel i will get a different cartridge and the VM95 are probably fantastic)
 
duke86fan said:
you must REALLY have a feud with ortofon...
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I’ve said two things re: Ortofon repeatedly:

They are overpriced.
Overall, the Blue is my favorite of the 2m series.

The 2m Blue is $236. The equivalent in the VM95 series is the EN- $119.

A/T is a much larger company than Ortofon and the economies of scale work in the consumer’s favor. More expensive definitely isn’t better in this case.

Also, Amazon allows returns if you aren’t satisfied.
 
kvetcha said:
the man has a point
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i almost never trust amazon returns

if just because i will be using the cartridge and so technically its not new anymore and they'll be selling used parts to someone.. something feels off when i dont even keep the packaging sometimes

(also i liked that i know from several videos that the blue works on my turntable because tonearm weight and all that dumb stuff... plus it makes me feel better since its the popular one.. sometimes the dumb reasons are important)
 
duke86fan said:
i almost never trust amazon returns

if just because i will be using the cartridge and so technically its not new anymore and they'll be selling used parts to someone.. something feels off when i dont even keep the packaging sometimes

(also i liked that i know from several videos that the blue works on my turntable because tonearm weight and all that dumb stuff... plus it makes me feel better since its the popular one)
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You of all people should feel great justice in costing a gigantic company some extra money.
 
kvetcha said:
You of all people should feel great justice in costing a gigantic company some extra money.
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thats why i wasn't going to buy from amazon but LP gear or music direct (why not cut out the bezos in general)

and i just have dumb "the audiotechnica doesn't have the notoriety" reasons (basically im insecure)
 
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kvetcha said:
The $850 MoFi MasterTracker is a rebranded AT.
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but they had to make sure it was amazing and even better by modifying it... that is the only logical explanation

logic makes sense

i need the security of knowing i have a popular audiophile level item (i wanna know im good... and perfect), buying these big name official audiophile magazine approved items isn't just buying snake oil or a paint job or a cheap cartridge that sounds the exact same
 
duke86fan said:
but they had to make sure it was amazing and even better by modifying it... that is the only logical explanation

logic makes sense

i need the security of knowing i have a popular audiophile level item (i wanna know im good... and perfect)
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The AT-ART9 is considered one of the finest sub-$1000 carts you can buy. It is absolutely audiophile approved.

That aside, you gotta stop overthinking this stuff.
 
kvetcha said:
That aside, you gotta stop overthinking this stuff.
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its hard not to...

i wanted to buy one because the audiophile sites claim its the best for the 200 price point. people are telling me no... i need to figure out what is right when i just want to have a better system... or at least.. i wanna spend money (not even that just THINK of spending money)
 
duke86fan said:
its hard not to...

i wanted to buy one because the audiophile sites claim its the best for the 200 price point. people are telling me no... i need to figure out what is right when i just want to have a better system... or at least.. i wanna spend money (not even that just THINK of spending money)
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Who’s told you no? Even @HiFi Guy, noted Ortofon pooh-pooher, likes the 2M Blue.

And if you wanna spend money, and you have it to spend, then do it. Ultimately, you can only trust your own ears.
 
kvetcha said:
Who’s told you no? Even @HiFi Guy, noted Ortofon pooh-pooher, likes the 2M Blue.

And if you wanna spend money, and you have it to spend, then do it. Ultimately, you can only trust your own ears.
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ok....


guess i was confused because opposing voice said instead to go with audio technica...

i need to get my brain out of the seas of sadness like that one CGP grey video recommends but that requires getting off this forum and doing stuff that is not as fun
 
duke86fan said:
ok....


guess i was confused because opposing voice said instead to go with audio technica...

i need to get my brain out of the seas of sadness like that one CGP grey video recommends but that requires getting off this forum and doing stuff that is not as fun
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I mean, the AT is a less expensive buy-in and has a ton of upgrade styli you can move through as you wear them out. It’s not a bad move at all.

And if you need to take a break from the forum, you should. It’ll still be here when you come back.
 
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kvetcha said:
I mean, the AT is a less expensive buy-in and has a ton of upgrade styluses you can move through as you wear them out. It’s not a bad move at all.
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the only thing i am not liking about my grado is that its a bit too.. grainy and muddy in places so i think the ortofon would fit my needs perfectly, maybe if i had a comparison of the ortofon to a high quality audiotechnica (the 2M red vs 95e youtube video had the ortofon as the clear winner so i dunno what the difference would be with something like the ML, SL, or EN compared to blue) i might change my mind, but im going with my mind on this just because im going to not overthink as much
 
duke86fan said:
ok....


guess i was confused because opposing voice said instead to go with audio technica...

i need to get my brain out of the seas of sadness like that one CGP grey video recommends but that requires getting off this forum and doing stuff that is not as fun
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I mean this in all seriousness. Buying whatever isn’t going to bring long term happiness, no matter how awesome whatever you buy might be.
 
duke86fan said:
the only thing i am not liking about my grado is that its a bit too.. grainy and muddy in places so i think the ortofon would fit my needs perfectly, maybe if i had a comparison of the ortofon to a high quality audiotechnica (the 2M red vs 95e youtube video had the ortofon as the clear winner so i dunno what the difference would be with something like the ML, SL, or EN compared to blue) i might change my mind, but im going with my mind on this just because im going to not overthink as much
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Because of the compression algorithm that You Tube uses, you cannot make valid comparisons.
 
@duke86fan What's your cart buying timeline? You note that you don't want to buy two carts to figure out which one you want - if I'm gathering my info correctly is it down to a 2M Blue and some AT (FWIW, I've had Ortofons and ATs and don't have a prob w/ Ortofons but think AT is a better brand).

Any how, I ask about your timeline b/c I THINK (I'm like 99% sure) I have a 2M Blue collecting dust (not really I keep my shit tight) in a drawer. I haven't used it in a couple years and it probably has ~100 or so hours on it. I won't be back to my system till March, but if you wanna spend your own $ on the AT (or whatever else you were looking at) then I'll PIF the 2M (again, 99% sure it actually exists). I don't have any plans on selling it; I don't really have any plans for it at all.
 
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