Fremer's Nine Cartridge Survey

[arj]

i guess the ortofon 2M is a real Value for Money cart..for what it does. I actually liked the Grado..very few people seemed to have liked it though

 

[Hiten]

From price to the SQ point of view confusing results ???
There is no way a Rs. 30,000 cartridge (Sumiko Blue) was voted above Ortofon Anna, which is almost Rs. six lakh cartridge. At that price level it ought to give atleast good performance to same level cartridge. As I said good fun experiment which can give vague idea.
But We learn from all experiment and comparing exercise , I am no expert and only can guess. So much depends on tonearm and cartridge matching. Ortofon Anna a moving coil cartridge requires low mass arm. A heavier arm creates tracking problem so no wonder it came second to lower priced cartridge. Long back I had replaced my pioneer TT with good Shure cartridge. But there was no magic (Not high fidelity but good sound) naturally the original cartridge was matched by the co. to that particular arm and it made so much difference.

I guess AT95E will be in first three.

AT 95se did came in third but from bottom :lol:
offtopic : Stevie will PM you.
correction : Read Ortofon Bronze in place of Sumiko Blue
Regards

 

[stevieboy]

Hi Hiten,

There's nothing like a low MC cart needing a low mass arm. Most of Ortofon's top MC carts and quite a few other top end MCs are high mass, even the popular denon 103 does best loaded with a massy headshell and in a heavy tonearm to match. The Anna is medium mass with a tracking of around 2.5 and a compliance lower than 10.

I particularly enjoyed fremer trying to explain away the continuum, cobra, anna combo as not an embarrassing result

Regards

 

[arj]

Hi Hiten,

There's nothing like a low MC cart needing a low mass arm. Most of Ortofon's top MC carts and quite a few other top end MCs are high mass, even the popular denon 103 does best loaded with a massy headshell and in a heavy tonearm to match. The Anna is medium mass with a tracking of around 2.5 and a compliance lower than 10.

I particularly enjoyed fremer trying to explain away the continuum, cobra, anna combo as not an embarrassing result

Regards

Bang on. with a DL103 many folks mass load the headshell with coins / weights and Shims. the heavier the arm the better it does

 

[Hiten]

From rumble, wow, flutter to compliance figures all cos. have different standards. I mean they do not give false figures but they have different ways of measurements.

I was under the impression that high compliance needs lighter arm and vice versa. Otherwise trackability (not tracking force) and resonance issue arises, due to inertia of high mass arm a high compliance cantilever will put good amount of resonance energy back in the cartridge and tonearm. What to believe results or theories. Results are hardly indicative of relation between price and performance or theory and practice.

I read fremmers explanation. It says Anna sample was accurate speed while rest were little faster. Accurate speed should give good results. But it has not. Was the speed difference noticeable ? Should one listen to TTs at little higher speed ? Other point is at that price level of cartridge a better ADC should have been used, which I agree with and affirms that shootout is good fun experiment but not accurate since results are confusing that low priced cartridges are above expensive cartridges. But what if Anna cartridge had come first. That would put the used ordinary ADC in top. Strange hobby is this.

I think he is doing the experiment again which would also be interesting but cats are out of the bag. :lol:
Regards