Best cartridge to match with REF Phono 2 and 2SE

[Number95]

Originally Posted by Etunes

I've been told that the best match is a cartridge with an output voltage of .4MV@ 5cm/s or greater with the REF Phono 2. Please share your thoughts and experience with the REF Phono 2 and which cartridge works for you. My turntables are SME 20/3A which has the V arm and the Ayre/DPS with DPS arm.
Thanks!

I use Transfiguration Orpheus with ph7 with reasonable satisfaction. Ph7 has 57.5db gain and cartridge is 0.48mv if I am not mistaken. Ref2 seems to have 68db single ended and 74db balanced gain depending on your connecting preference thru preamp, either of its gains are much better compared to ph7 so you should almost have an ideal combination with any cartridge at the market. I doubt you will need extra gain thru your preamp with Ref2(se) while with ph7 and low output mc cartridges, one sometimes need preamp gain which slightly degrades overall performance as well as introducing more noise. I do not think one can regret his choice if he gets Ref2 se. For fine tuning to the cartridge's internal impedence and to the rest of the audio system, you can try different load preferences thru Ref phono and find the most optimum load for phono stage. Happy listenings.