MC suggestions

Ortofon MC2000 is spectacular if you have an appropriate high gain phono stage or dedicated SUT for it. I’ve been able to find unused NOS (New Old Stock) and the package is very impressive with invitation to the ortofon Golden Ear Club. This is a high compliance and extremely low output MC (can be used on the same tonearm with your grado). Ortofon MC-2000 is full or details and really a mind blowing presentation. The NOS unit can be very expensive, but cantilever and tip is so special, do not expect any re-tipper can replace it with something equal. Only the original worth the effort and money.

If you’re considering the low compliance Miyajima, which must be very interesting cartridge, you can look for Ortofon SPU Royal G mkII with Replicant-100 profile and very special coil. The Miyajima and SPU can be definitely grouped together, while the Miyajima has Shibata profile the SPU Royal G has Replicant-100 profile. However, for both cartridges you need much heavier tonearm than for your Grado. SPU and Miyajima are Low Compliance cartridges and highly regarded for their organic presentation! But with Replicant-100 profile on SPU you will get more details, really nothing to miss. And life span of Replicant-100 is up to 2000 hrs !

A good Miyajima (Kansui or Madake) is much more expensive than your budget BTW

First of all you have to read this article about tonearm/cartridge resonance. This will help to select a cartridge for your amr correctly. If your cartridge is made in japan then compliance measured @100Hz, but for correct calculation you must know the compliance measured @10Hz (cartridges made in US already have correct figure in cu, but Japanese must be x1.7 to convert to normal 10hz compliance). Following the Ortofon’s diagram you can see what is optimal or not optimal for your tomeam, but i must take in count cartridge mass, also mass of the mounting screws (they can add mass a bit if you will use heavy screws).

Compliance of madake is extremely low ( 9cu @10Hz) as stated on their website. And the mass of the cartridge is about 9.5g. Seems like you can use it on your arm and the resonance is still in a good range, but the madake could be better on higher mass arm.

The only problem with used Madake is the service, bamboo cantilever is not available from anybody else, so for the service you must be able to ship it to Japan, but as far as i know the do not retip them, they will give you a new one instead, to do so your used cartridge must be from legit dealer. or you will be by your own with your exotic Madake.

Sadly you can’t mount an SPU on your tonearm, because the headshell is not detachable.

Another interesting LOMC is Fidelity-Research PMC-3 with Contact Line stylus and Air-Core Coil designed by Ikeda-San. Also low compliance and very close to the FR-7f

P.S. Can’t find a compliance figure for your Grado, but all my Grado cartridges are about 30cu (high compliance), if your Statement V.2 is also 30cu then (with 10g self mass then) your 15.5g tonearm is not optimal for this cartridge. You can use the same orotofon diagram to make sure the resonance frequency if lower then desirable range!  @fourwnds 

However, this is all in theory, practically it can be different to our ears.

@lewm I guest you don’t have an Ortofon booklet with your sample refurbished by Axel for Nandric?

There is all info about the cantilever in the booklet every NOS owner have in the package, there are some nice pictures of the cantilever and stylus tip. Have you ever seen an original cantilever of the Ortofon MC2000? I’ve never seen a cantilever like that from any other manufacturer.

I’ve posted a link to detailed review.
I think cartridges like Miyajima Madake with bamboo cantilever is also not for everyone, but it’s an interesting and unique design in its own way like the Orotofon MC2000 imo

@lewm

By all accounts, the original MC2000 bears an aluminum cantilever with a "fine line" tip. That’s another way of saying "line contact". According to our friend, Nikola, Axel had a small supply of actual original alu cantilevers with "fine line" styli he obtained from the same suppliers that made the MC2000 cantilever/stylus for Ortofon.

Interesting, then you are safe and maybe close to the original, but still not there.

The original stylus called a Symmetrical Contact Line (SLC) diamond. This is NOT a Fine Line diamond, because in the booklet that i have with my original MC2000 they are comparing a "footprint" of different profiles including FineLine. The "footprint" (as they call it) of FineLine is not completely symmetrical, so the typical FineLine is inferior compared to Ortofon Symmetrical Contact Line (SLC). This is why i said this is a special profile.

Why the cantilever is special? This cantilever is not like any conventional ortofon aluminum cantilever, not like on any other ortofon cartridges.

The Meff value for the Ortofon MC2000 is 0.27 mg. A minimum value. It was achieved quite simply by finding the optimal cantilever length (6.15 mm), and utilizing the correct materials for moving system: an extremely light and stiff aluminum cantilever or conical shape, one of the world’s tiniest diamonds, and diminutive cross-shaped aluminum armature. The legs of the cross are hollow which has allowed for mass reduction of 66% in relation to traditional armature design.

There are much more technical details about this cartridge in the original booklet. I want to remind everyone that Boron was available for Ortofon in the 80’s, but for some reason MC2000 was designed with special aluminum cantilever.

Personally i don’t care about VdH or any other retipers, anyone can buy their own cartridges instead of messing around with refurbishing a special original design made by some other clever designers. Vintage cartridges are valuable ONLY in its original design and in NOS condition.

I don’t believe in the statement that retippers can make any cartridge better than the original. If it’s true averyone can buy a destroyed garbage without stylus/cantilever to refurbish them believing they are better than the original. It makes no sense for me at all.

Some other cartridges with aluminum cantilever are absolutely spectacular, like the FR-7fz or Miyabi MCA for example.

@johnss 

would suggest you change the load resistors from metal film to Vishay bulk Foil. no comparison. the noise floor will drop and micro detail will come through in spades without any sort of frequency balance changes.

Absolutely, i have replaced stock resistors in various phono stages and the Vishay Naked Foid are superb ! I bought mine from the US manufacturer directly: texas components they are offering all values. Mine were 47k and 100k for MM input. Good service!