Denon DL-110 vs Ortofon OM 20

I've been wanting to upgrade to an MC cartridge for awhile and the opportunity recently presented itself via a NIB Denon DL-110 from Japan at an affordable price. My fears that my Musical Fidelity V90-LPS would have insufficient gain to drive it were immediately proven to be unfounded as I'm able to obtain a comfortable listening level at about 11 o'clock on the dial on my Cambridge Audio 640A amplifier. First impressions are very good, considering that the cart hasn't even begun to break in yet. It's already an improvement over my 2M Blue and Nagaoka MP-110 which were my top MM carts in my collection

These have sound on par with the higher end speakers I’ve heard at half the price. I cannot emphasise enough how happy I am with them, and they’re a extremely good entry point into the audio world.

My Blue Point slurred the S's and the Audio Technica cartridge on my Technics SL-1700 also was very sibilant. The Denon reproduces the S's very sharply with no overt sibilance. Dropping the needle on Micheal Jackson's Billy Jean from "Thriller", another track that give cartridges issues, played very well. The sound stage width is very nice, too

So after I research a little about the comparison between OM 10 and 20, and also knowing the ProS was not being used optimally, I finally decided to depart with 200 clams and see what kind of result I get. I put the stylus on as soon as I had a chance to, start playing with it am was I in a pleasant surprise, the details rival the Shure, sounded better than the Grado GC and give awesome details and stage presents. It jumped to the number one spot of my cartilage collection and overtook the Shure. The only thing I wanted was the price come down a bit to the level of eBay offer

I used this cartridge in the latest Rega RP3, NAD 350, HD650, very clear but with a harsh edge. I am now using a Grado Reference Platinum 2, which is as clear as the Denon but smoother. The Denon is very good but a bit aggressive. My preference is the Grado

Long read, I know, but there is very little information on the forums about these cartridges compared to others. If you're still reading down here, I hope this helped! Buy this or go full stupid and get the 30 or 40.