Ortofon 2M Red with Rega Planar 2 - Cartridge Review

I’ve owned a Rega Planar 2 for years (purchased new in 1989) and it's had an easy life. As I am spinning a lot more vinyl these days I decided to look at a few upgrades. One of the biggest you can make is changing the cartridge. Depending on your choice, you can completely change how your turntable sounds and performs.

I’ve always used various Rega carts, including the Bias, with my Planar 2. But honestly, I was never that impressed by them.  After researching online and talking to a few local audio experts, I decided to go for the Ortofon 2M Red at around $100. This is by no means an expensive cartridge, but I didn’t feel like the deck warranted spending much more at this point and I’ve been thinking about adding a second turntable to the stable anyway so wanted to save some funds for that if an opportunity came along.

Because I was about to give the turntable a much heavier workload than usual due to all my recent vinyl purchases, I decided to get it serviced by my local Rega dealer who could install the new cartridge at the same time so I can’t really comment on the installation process.

As far as sound goes, I have a lot of opinions.  Compared to many vintage carts, the 2M Red sounds, not surprisingly, quite modern.  It’s also a lot louder than many vintage carts and provides a nice balance between the detail of CDs and the warmth of vinyl.  The 2M red is a very detailed and full sounding cart with a forward presentation.  It’s somewhat aggressive sounding, not laid back and warm, so it’s great for upfront, pacey genres like rock, pop, and jazz fusion.  It’s also decent for jazz as it can extract lots of detail, but perhaps a little shrill at the top end, like when Miles grabs his Harmon mute and wails away.  It’s a rhythmic cart and much more dynamic than the Rega carts I used previously, which sound dull in comparison. The cart tracks well, but it really likes clean records.  Any groove damage, dirt and dust is immediately picked up by the cart and communicated through the speakers so it’s not the most forgiving cart you can buy if you have a lot of old, worn LPs.

Overall, I am very happy with the 2M Red.  It’s completely changed the sound of my Planar 2 and given it a lot more life (and a few more years). It’s pretty much killed my idea of trading it for another turntable.  No cart does everything perfectly (at least at this price level), but for $100, the 2M Red offers some serious bang for the buck.  If you are looking for a cart at this price point, it’s definitely worthy of serious consideration.