This cartridge/shell combo is perfect if you want to upgrade with ease; just insert and screw into the tone arm, and check the azimuth, and you’re good. I upgraded from the stock cartridge of my LP120x, and paired this upgrade with a rubber platter mat. The improvement was instantly noticeable. The stock cartridge had a “squashed, washed out, super shiny sound with very little in the bass frequency. The Ortofon instantly canceled out everything that was wrong that sound. The Ortofon sound is wider, warmer, and with a better bass response. The separation, particularly in the bass and low mid frequencies is incredible. I listened to some Jazz and then “Lady in My Life” by Michael Jackson (original first press Thriller LP in near mint condish), and I hear the different instrument parts much more clearly, and with good presence and dynamics. I’m very pleased.

I have an ATLP120 (2017ish version) and I upgraded to the 2M Red from an AT95E head shell with a basic VM95E stylus. The first record I spun with the 2M Red was the 2021 RSD version of The Open Door by Evanescence. This is my all-time favorite album and go-to tester for new equipment. The sound quality of this stylus is unmatched. While Amy’s vocals were always crisp and clean, this stylus took them to a whole new level — backing tracks included. Don’t even get me started on how great the bass sounds with no EQ adjustment. It sounded as if I were hearing Evanescence live again and it was eargasmic. I wish I had upgraded to the 2M Red sooner.

I have the Ortofon red, and blue mounted on to a high-quality head shell and they sound good. I have no clue why, but this sounds better. Loud and clear with warm tones. Go figure🤔

First things first: I have a Technics SL-1600. The headshell replacement was a piece of cake. Adjusted the counterbalance to get it to the 1.8 grams. Checked the alignment with a printable turntable protractor, adjusted the overhang 1/16 of an inch, and was good to go.The good:Super quick install/setup. This package contains a really high quality head-shell and cartridge. The music I chose was an album I’ve listened to for decades. I was shocked how much more crisp and clear the music came through.The soundstage was wide and bright, but the bass still punched through the way it should. Midrange is excellent. Highs are good, but not perfect. I’m told the 2M Blue addresses highs better. I’m nit picking though, it sounds incredible.The bad:Pretty pricey head-shell/cartridge combo. $50 for it to be installed on a head-shell is something I wouldn’t pay for again. I cannot critique much else.My music sounds great, it was easy to install, and I’m glad I made the purchase.

I used this Cartridge most.

価格とのバランスが良い製品と思います。オルトフォンらしいタイトな低音です。

East to install. I put it on my protractor and out of the box it was perfectly aligned.I put on Eagles "Hotel California". Background of my system: I run a Denon 4400, (1125 watts), brain,Klipsch CF 3's front; Infinity 6" woofer book shelves rear with a 15" 600 watt kicker to top all this off. Keep in mind I had a stock Audio Technica 95 stylus which came stock on my TechPlay TCP4530 turntable. I played this cut using the AT 95 stylus first and took notice of the sound. Next, I installed the ORTOFON Red cartridge just purchased from Amazon, ($129.95). WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The bass! I had to turn the sound down a little since I live in a duplex and the neighbors, you know what I mean? The highs were higher and the bass was bassier, very present, to say the least. Now, I was skeptical about purchasing a $130 needle. But after hearing this sound on several more hot tracks, I was convinced the money was well worth it. In a few months, I will purchase the ORTOFON Blue and I can't wait to hear the new sound.

El producto llegó antes de lo programado, bien embalado y protegido.Este es mi segundo Ortofon red y lo compré porque gracias a él rescaté mis vinilos. Es muy sencillo montarlo y, una vez calibrado el brazo de la tornamesa, resulta una delicia escuchar aquellos vinilos bien grabados. La separación de canales es estupenda, los graves son potentes, así que hay que tener cuidado con ellos y el campo sonoro es tan claro que permite ubicar muy bien los instrumentos. Una elección ampliamente recomendable.

First off, I want to say that this cartridge has forced me to pay more attention to setting up my turntable. That's a good thing, I've learned a lot in the last few days. I am making the slow, incremental progression up the turntable ladder. Many will say that this gear isn't really high end. I guess that depends on your priorities and budget. Here is my experience. My "low end" audio gear is the LP-120 TT, a Yamaha R-S202 amplifier, a set of KEF Q-100 speakers and a cheapish Sony 10" sub woofer. I use speaker level inputs and outputs through the sub woofer since my amplifier doesn't have a sub out. I think my system probably cost about $850 all in before the new cartridge. So yeah, a fairly budget system. I have a growing collection of vinyl, some new, some old......some really "old". I wanted to step up my game with a nicer sounding cartridge. So, when I saw this combo I decided that it would be nice to have two complete head shells so that I could swap back and forth for different records and have one "beater" cartridge/head shell for the not so pristine records that I own or if I decided that certain records sound better with a specific cartridge. I own an Audio Technica LP-120 direct drive turntable that came with an AT95e cartridge. I had put a bunch of hours on it and knocked it around accidentally a few times and it just seemed to be degrading from a sound standpoint. There are a few caveats with the LP-120. One is increased surface noise due to the direct drive motor. This has never really bothered me too much and I've never had a really quiet TT to compare it to. The other problem that seems to be common is that the vertical tracking angle adjustment, the huge mechanism that is the entire base of the tone arm assembly, is way too high at its minimum setting - meaning that the cartridge is always angled down towards the head shell end of the tone arm. Anyway, I put the new cartridge/head shell on and gave it a whirl. I had looked into the proper way of aligning the cartridge. There are two ways. One is to measure from the gasket on the head shell to the tip of the stylus and make the cartridge square in the head shell at 52 or 53 mm. The other way is to buy or print out a protractor with alignment marks at several points on the arc of the tone arm travel. I used a hybrid method. I set the overhang to 53mm and then used the protractor, which I downloaded from Audio Technica, to do the final adjustments. I'm glad I did as the cartridge ended up being canted in slightly toward the spindle when it was properly set. So next was a listen. I was not impressed at all. Although there was lots of detail, the highs were really shrill. On top of that, the bass was almost non existent unless it was cranked way up on the amplifier. I already knew about the VTA problem, but this table had always sounded better than first one I had so I didn't really have an example to reference what was good or bad. This is when I started researching these issues online. I found lots of great debates on audiophile forums about proper VTA and its importance or lack thereof. The one thing that kept coming up on the threads was a correlation between a stylus that was angled downward and the sounds that I was hearing from my new cartridge. So I stacked up two OEM Audio Technica felt mats and put my rubber mat on top to bring the head shell level with the record. Holy cow, what a difference! There was plenty of bass and detailed highs, but no longer the shrill highs. Cymbals and bells are so lifelike. I would still call the sound "bright", but in a good way. I now prefer to listen with the bass and treble on the amp set at zero. If I adjust one or the other, I feel like I'm losing something. It sounds great. The tall mass of sound deadening material on the platter has also made the surface noise better I think. There is just enough spindle poking out to work, but the record weight that I use is a tad floppy on top now because of the lack of vertical spindle left over. In the mean time, I had ordered a replacement stylus for the OEM AT head shell. I got the AT95EX. It's a well regarded budget cartridge. I did the same setup for this new cartridge. It seemed to be a little less picky about the VTA when compared to the Ortofon 2M Red. It also sounds great. It has more bass but it's a little boomy and the highs are not as well defined. It sounds really good, until I put the Ortofon back on. I'd say the sound of the AT95EX is creamier but less defined. The Ortofon definitely sounds better and more lifelike to me. As far as swapping head shells goes, the weight is different between the two cartridge/head shell combinations. The AT head shell with the AT95EX weighs 14.45 grams while the Ortofon combo weighs 16.88 grams. I wanted to be able to swap between the two quickly so I weighed the Ortofon out on a separate digital scale to have a vertical tracking force of 2g. I then taped the tonearm weight scale to the weight itself and set it at 2. I then weighed the VTF of the AT combo and it came out to something like .68 grams when the weight is set for the Ortofon combo. Using a separate digital scale set to the same height as a record, I set the tracking force to 2 grams and ended up with the tone arm weight scale reading 3 grams. So now I can just switch cartridges and spin the coupled tone arm weight and scale from 2 to 3 grams. the whole process takes 30 seconds. Remember, this review is very specific to the AT LP-120 turntable. Of course, vertical tracking angle is something that you will have to deal with on any table. And my experience shows that setting the correct angle is very important for this cartridge. My only question now is how the three layers of mats are affecting the sound. There isn't much I can do short of swapping mat materials or shimming the head shell. That would have to be a big shim, several millimeters thick. So for now this is my best option. I'm sure that I'll buy a new turntable a some point and I can do this all over again.

Excellent Cartridge.Smooth and warm analog audio.