Feedback on Monster Alpha 2 Cartridge

I agree with Qdrone's comments. The 2000 is the one to find; fantastic cartridge. Mine needs to be retipped after years of service on a ET2. But, you asked about the Alpha 2 which I owned years ago before owning the 2000 along with, among many others, the AT OC9. I have to respectfully disagree with Bpoletti. In my system and for my tastes, the Alpha 2 was an infinitely better cartridge than the OC9. In fairness, my OC9 was not the /II. My Alpha 2, which definitely sounds in character like a relative of the 2000, was more detailed, had better bass extension and had much more stable imaging than the OC9 which always sounded more hi-fi'ish to me in spite of the Alpha's top end that could sound, as Qdrone points out, a little zippy if not set up properly. The OC9 was arguably "smoother" sounding but had an overall bright glaze to the sound that I found annoying. My OC9 had larger images than the Alpha 2 which could make it sound "fuller", but did not reach as deep in the bass. IMO, the AT was a good solid mid-level cartridge; the Alpha 2 was a true high-end cartridge with a couple of flaws that could be improved on with careful set up and that were obvious in part because it did other things so well. Not a 2000 'though.

Cmalak, the only Dynavector I have ever owned was a Karat Ruby many years ago, so I can't help you with that comparison. I am not very familiar with mid level cartridges of the recent past. After the AG2000 my cartridge purchases included a couple of Vandenhuls and Shelters and over the last few years I have been revisiting vintage MM's which can be quite excellent. I can tell you that in the price range we are talking about I would consider a used Shelter 501, while very different, to be in the same general class as the Alpha 2. At $400 an Alpha 2 from a trusted dealer seems like a solid deal to me. Good luck.