Want to upgrade my cartridge from 2m blue to black

I have no idea what you are talking about, I have two Linn LP12s a SOTA Sapphire, A Micro Seiki MR711, Logic Tempo E and Russco Cue Master to play my 78s. Which I have not sold, though I did have it up for sale once and cancelled the ad. Good detective work, Sherlock, you know not of what you speak. It is my avatar as I prefer 78s to LPs. Feel free to differ, and feel free not to like any of them.

I appreciate your permission but I am free to disagree with your kind even if I have no turntables at all.

Thank you for sharing that your turntables are of the highest class, I’m glad that you enjoy them. We all know know just what a high class guy you are.

What does all of this ad hominem prattle have to do with the OP and the suggestions that will help her to achieve a better sound? The turntable being, as Ivor once said, “much more important than tonearm or cartridge.” 

I’m reading great back and forth between all the analog audiophiles on this forum so let me restate my question in a different way and please give me a honest and straightforward answer...

If I install the 2m black cartridge (with black body) on my mmf 2.2 and properly setup vta, vtf, azimuth, overhang etc. will I be able to at least extract 90% of the 2m blacks potential in performance? If so I will be satisfied and go this route. Later if I have the money I can invest in a higher quality table. So let me know what you guys think.

You should see a benefit by putting a better cartridge on that table. How do you quantify what percentage of improvement?

Your money could be spent better, but it's your money and your choice. 

The bass will never be as solid on that turntable, the background noise will not be as low, the details of the music won't be as present as they would be on a better table. The turntable matters more than the cartridge. 

tubelvr1, if you put a 2M black cartridge on your table and it's properly set up you will get much better sound than you are getting with the blue cartridge. I subscribe to the philosophy of Andy at Vintage Tube Services: "I would much rather have a mediocre amplifier with good tubes than a high end amplifier with cheapo tubes." Perhaps not exact wording, but the concept holds.

If I install the 2m black cartridge (with black body) on my mmf 2.2 and properly setup vta, vtf, azimuth, overhang etc. will I be able to at least extract 90% of the 2m blacks potential in performance?

No, you will never get the quality of 2M Black (Shibata stylus) with 2M Blue (Elliptical stylus), no matter which turntable you’re using. Your cartridge is already aligned by the manufacturer on your tonearm, right ?

If you can’t properly extract the bass and hight from the vinyl groove how a better turntable can compensate it to you ? The music cut with a cutter head, the closer the stylus profile shape to a cutter head the more accurate and more impressive is the reproduction of the record in your system. This is rule number 1.

Because the ONLY component that physically ride in the vinyl groove is the stylus tip (diamond), nothing else.

You already have an optimal combination of the cartridge and tonearm, this combination selected by the manufacturer.

The Ortofon designed those cartridges to put them in line from cheap to expensive according to the quality level a customer can get with each model. With MM cartridges it all depends on the stylus profile.

The reason why Black is more expensive than Blues is much more compliacated stylus profile of the Black, not a cartridge generator, the generator is the same.

Do yourself a favor, ignore what some people are posting, they really know nothing about cartridge design as i can see. And their logic is very strange, more like a perversion.

You can learn by your own, just read this thread to understand why stylus profile is so important to extract maximum musical information from vinyl:

https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?t=22894

You’re using the cheapest stylus now, Conical and Elliptical are the cheapest profiles. Elliptical is entry level profile, conical is the worst ever!

The more advanced profiles are LineContact type, there are many:
Hyper Elliptical, Shibata, Stereohedron, Van Den Hul, F.Gyger, MicroLine, SAS, MicroRidge .... they are all High-End (nude siamonds, not bonded)

Why do you think so many different profiles have been designed?
Just to make the sound of your vinyl much better, to be more polite with your records in terms of record wear, and to serve you much longer. All you need in case with MM is just to change stylus.

-Elliptical stylus life span is about 500hrs
-Shibata stylus life span is twice as much !
-MicroRidge stylus life span is about 2000 hrs

Turntable has nothing to do with your record wear factor, frequency response of your cartridge and your vinyl grooves.

Turntable can make a rotation of the record more stable, one turntable can be better isolated from vibrations, tonearm can have better bearings etc, but all these things in your case is irrelevant if your cartridge has entry level stylus profile. The most noticable different (if you willing to spend no more than $700) you will get ONLY by upgrading a stylus profile on your cartridge (or with completely different cartridge) first.

Later you can upgrade your turntable for $1200-1500 (look for new Technics DD released this year, just don’t buy another cheap belt drive).

Here is my system (before i changed the apms).

P.S. actually you can get much better cartridge than 2M Black just for $280 (new) here.