Brief comments:
1) the VM family are excellent cartridges - and the level of performance is determined by the stylus... (and its effective mass)
2) The current versions of this family have relatively high tracking force (2g) - they are mid-low compliance, and designed for mid-high mass arms
3) From the picture, it appears you are using a low mass arm linear tracking TT (Sony?) - I would suggest that increasing the arm mass may provide optimum results - get the arm into this cartridges "sweet spot" in terms of mass/compliance, and the whole thing will track better. (increase the weight of the headshell - and adjust the counterweight to match)
Given my assumption that you have a low mass arm - optimum cartridge matching for that arm, would be cartridges with tracking forces around 1.2g - and no more than 1.5g
The current Ortofon 2M styli, are also designed for a mid mass arm - slightly lighter than what the AT is designed for - but definitely still heavier than your arm.
Given that the current "fashion" is in mid mass - I would suggest adjusting your arm accordingly and then enjoying your cartridge.
You can also adjust the "voicing" of the cartridge by changing the capacitance and resistive load of your system.
Both the Ortofon and the AT are great cartridges - but I prefer their earlier versions of 20+ years ago which had high compliance styli (the bodies have not changed, although the names/numbers have varied, what has changed is the styli) - mostly because I prefer low mass arms.
If your arm is an electronically damped biotracer - then it will adjust and compensate for the mismatch - but even then you may be able to eke higher performance out of it, by increasing the mass a bit - match arm to cartridge, and reduce the work that the electronic damping has to do.
