Cartridge Upgrade?

The nice thing about Rega carts is the three hole mount.  Takes the guesswork out of alignment and the cart is the proper height,  no shims required 

If you stay with Ortofon and go to Bronze or Black I would recommend the Grimm alignment tool.    I thought my Bronze sounded good set up with a Geodisc but when I used the Grimm tool i found that I was close but it was still off.  Once set up with the Grimm tool it sounded incredible.    $35 on eBay, works with all 2m cart bodies.    Grimm also makes a tool for AT, Hana, Shure, and others.   

Both of those are elliptical, and aluminum cantilever. If changing, why stay in that 'middle of the road' category? 

The is no doubt regarding the benefits of larger contact surface of advanced stylus shapes, beginning with Shibata and all the subsequent named and patented shapes that followed, and all the advancements of making lighter/stiffer cantilevers.

I know people have concerns, that advanced stylus require more precise alignment, however, it only takes a few inexpensive tools and some practice to do it yourself, or make friends with someone who can teach you or do it for you, or pay a professional to do it, as it will give the advantage of less wear as well as improved sound and imaging, an investment lasting years.

Aside from the 'preferred sound' you have heard yourself or read about, always invest more to get improved imaging, all of which is Phantom, and channel balance tightens and channel separation increases as advanced stylus shapes and cantilever materials are used.

I strongly recommend you go for any advanced stylus shape, on a lighter/stiffer cantilever material, boron is my choice if new, beryllium my current favorite if used or NOS, which allows lighter tracking, reduced wear, longer stylus life while producing superior imaging.

The Nd5 is based on a lot of yap about 'better' magnet, glass, light weight, .... but there is nothing advanced about the two most important parts: trace the groove and transmit the vibrations 'up the line'. 'Not Specified' says a lot to me. IF superior results were achieved, they would specify them as they do for their more advanced cartridges.

Specifications Type: moving magnet cartridge Body: PPS Cantilever: aluminium Stylus: true elliptical diamond Tracking Pressure: 1.75g Input load impedance: 47kOhms Nominal output voltage: 5-6mV Channel Balance : not specified Separation : not specified 

They give fuller specs for their advanced cartridges, the aphelion 2 uses boron 

https://www.rega.co.uk/products/aphelion-2

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Trying Moving Coil is a different thing, I resisted for many years, finally tried MC, had to solve pre-pre amplification via a SUT, advanced shape on boron, very good, and recently gone to Vintage MM with Advanced stylus shape on the lightest/stiffest Beryllium Cantilevers to get back to lighter 1.25g tracking weight. as well as the improvements I convince myself I perceive.

When you say "Ortofon Blue" are you referring to the 2M Blue, Quartet Blue, Cadenza Blue, or one of the older Ortofon cartridges with "Blue" in the name?

I find that focusing on advanced stylus shapes and boron/cultured stone cantilevers confers greater detail, but misses if a cartridge is well balanced, which IMHO comes down to the design of the motor and suspension. I generally find picking cartridges based on stylus type is a dead end, YMMV.

Then again, the pinpoint imaging that I hear in many hifi systems is of no interest to me as I do not hear it in the concert hall, so do not tune for it.

My cartridge is the 2M Blue. As of now I don't have the capacity for MC in my system using Rogue Sphinx (older version). Thanks for the continued feedback!

Thank you for the clarification. Much appreciated.