Want to upgrade my cartridge from 2m blue to black

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. 

 Hopefully I can offer you a definitive answer as I have gone through them all, in a manner of speaking..
I started off with a 2M Red on an SME3009s2i fitted to a Transcriptors Hydraulic reference that I had rebuilt, you can see my reaction to the sound on YT at Transcriptors Hydraulic first play if you're interested.
The day after I made the video I upgraded to a Blue stylus as it was obvious the TT/arm combo was good enough to warrant it, I was very pleased with the upgrade.
A few months back I saw a company selling the 2M Bronze cartridge at an unbelievable price to clear them, just over £200, I ordered one with a plan in mind as I will reveal.
It was my plan to sell the brand new stylus, which I did for about the same price as the cartridge cost me and then use the blue stylus in the bronze/black body. My reasoning being that all the blue styli I would ever buy would benefit from the superior body.
The improvement over the stock blue was so marked I ended up biting the bullet and buying a black stylus at their promotional price of £300. Am I happy, oh yes I am, it was an absolute pig to set up correctly but well worth the effort and expense.
So definitively, you can interchange all the 2M styli and bodies, mess the geometry up however and it may well sound worse than your blue, very fussy stylus profile methinks.
Oh yes, video on YT of the deck with the black cartridge for comparison, see 'Psychedelic Transcriptors'.
Hope that helps you.

Just noticed this comment.

'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'.
  
That is not correct.
The 2M black body is made of a different material to that of the blue, there are also component differences inside. Silver wire for example.

The 2M black body is made of a different material to that of the blue, there are also component differences inside. Silver wire for example.

Where the heck did you get this info ?

Have both cartridges and many more - they are identical

Good Listening

Peter

tubluvr1....I (again) recommend you start with the 2M Orange cartridge and stylus. This is a great upgrade for your MH 2.2. The Orange is a nude fine line stylus and much easier to set up on your tone arm. The Black Shibata requires more nuanced set up, especially azimuth which the 2.2 arm doesn’t allow.  The Orange’s cartridge/engine is the same as the Black. You can always and easilychange to the Black stylus only later when you are ready...probably when you get a more refined turntable. I think the Black is overkill with the 2.2 and the Orange is a great upgrade. I added the Orange on my MH 2.2. When I sold my MH I put the original cartridge/stylus back on and kept my 2M Orange, which I have on a second arm for my VPI Prime. It sounds great on that turntable too, although I mostly use my Lyra Delos MC cartridge. Good luck!