a certain rather generous gentleman of this Parish has been good enough to loan me a Ortofon 2m blue to try on my Rega P25/RB600 through the moving magnet phono stage of a Rega Cursa pre amp. I know that Rega can be a bit divisive, but I happen to enjoy the sound, and feel that they make rather good phono stages.

My usual cart is a Denon DL110, or on occasion a 103. The comparisons I wish to make are with the 110, as overall I much prefer it to the 103.

(The Blue has opened out a bit, and the top end smoothed a little)

To compare-

the 2m blue has a tad more bite and drive, and suits rock and blues a little better than the 110. It shows drum work in a better light, having more impact and attack, and it gives guitar a sharper edge when required.

The 110 on the other hand has a much better way of letting the music ebb and flow more on orchestral and jazz. It has a certain something in the mid band that really lets vocals, especially female, show what they can do. One of my favourite vocalists, a certain Christine Collister, has on stage a vocal quality that can as a critic put it, charm the birds from the trees. Although this is reduced on my system, with the denon in place it’s still there, with the ortofon its gone, (and I miss it).

Overall the Ortofon is of course the more modern cart, but has if anything moved the presentation of the turntable in the direction of my CD player, not something I particularly want it to do. The sound stage has a little more front to back depth, but where the hell did the width go, it now resides within the speaker boundaries, with the denon it reaches out to the corners of the room.

So guys, what have you heard that does both, takes the best of the ortofon, and balances it out with the deftness of touch and delicacy that denon has. It can be Moving Magnet, high output MC, or any MC with a output of as low as 0.4mv. I would prefer it to be not more than £500, but if it has to more then so be it.

Don't know why I bother repeating this as nobody ever pays any attention but here goes.
The Garrot 'Optim' FGS will wipe the floor with both the Denon 103 and Ortophon. It does however deserve a better phono stage than the Rega, not that there's anything wrong with Rega's for the price ,it's just that the Garrot will continue to sound better with each and every phono stage up-grade that's made right up to silly money phono preamps.
http://www.garrottbrothers.com/

I had followed your previous suggestion of the Garrot brothers, and from what I can see of the Optim, it is some 800 GBP, and not available in the UK. While some may be prepared to drop that amount on something unheard, I rightly or wrongly am not one of them. (Is it a modded Grado?) I also have no real interest in climbing the phono stage ladder at the moment, having tried a few and sold them on. I have heard two stages that I would consider changing for, neither of which are a justifiable expense for the immediate future, one being a dynavector 75, the other, me being me is a Rega, ios. The P75 is the more affordable, however if I had the cash for a P75 plus cart at the moment I would go for a better deck and stay with the denon 110.