“I recently bought my girlfriend a Denon Dp300F because
she wanted automatic operation. Well, the cartridge that
it comes with is a joke, to say the least. Since I am very happy with the ortofon Bronze in my system, I decided to try the Red for hers. Wow! The perfect choice! It allows the Denon to be the decent turntable that it is (for the
money). We listen mostly to classical and jazz/acoustic
and the Red comes through with clarity, smoothness and
weight. Very nice.”
“I first tried it with a cheap ebay tube phono pre-amp which to quote Caesar in Mel Brooks' "History of the World, Part I" was "Nice,not thrilling but nice," with an MC cartridge. I gave up on MC cartridges because: when the stylus wears out it costs close to as much as it does to replace the cartridge, lead-in wires to the coil fatigue and break from having to vibrate with the cartridge, and the cantilever sticks out and easily breaks off if touched. The cheap phono pre-amp sounded dull with the and probably any MM cartridge because it was designed for high output MC cartridges.
I invested in a Bellari VP130 phono pre-amp which is made for Otrofon MM cartridges and the tone and imagining blows away a very expensive high end recently factory rebuilt MSB Platinum DAC I use with the Vault 2i music server I purchased from you. The combination of the MSB Platinum DAC and the Vault 2i far outclass this DAC connected to an Oppo universal player I bought from you years ago to listen to 5 channel SACD. All sound lifelike with the right amplifier and speakers, but a Bellari combined with the Otrofon cartridge outdoes them all. From now on I will choose vinyl over highrez downloads whenever I can.”
“I became dissatisfied with MC cartridges which cost more to operate. I don't mind paying top dollar for quality but quality means it will last. Any cartridge will last about 1000 hours before its sound degrades from stylus wear. When an MC cartridge wears out at least the whole cantilever has to be replaced and this costs almost as much or more than a new cartridge. Even if this is done the delicate lead-in wires to the moving cartridge have to bend and flex to and fro as the coil does the vibrating n a fixed magnetic field. This degrades the atomic lattice if the conductor material making it brittle eventually causing it to fatigue fracture breaking the circuit and making the cartridge impossible to repair. If you are a television evangelist so you can afford to pay $15,000 for the most high end there is cartridge there is it will cost you $15/hour to play your records. This is not acceptable. It violates my definition of quality which must include longevity and freedom from excessive maintenance costs. After three MB cartridges went to hell on me I concluded 1) I do not want to use them anymore, and 2) the point of diminishing returns on how much you pay at which the improvement in sound is noticeable can easily be reached at the price of a good MM cartridge. The Ortofon is my choice. It has a full-body sound and casts what seems a sound stage than the MC cartridges and digital had been giving me, but it may be trying removing the toe-in orientation of the planar magnetic speakers I tried which contributed to this. Furthermore, the Ortofon cartridge is very easy and safe to install. It has a protective shell for the stylus you remove after the wires are safely hooked up and the cartridge is secured to the tonearm. You remove the protective stylus shell when you are ready to adjust the tracking force.”
“The rega bias cartridge on my pl1 was worn out or damaged and sounded bad. I replaced it with the very affordable 2M red. Wow, what an improvement. The bass is tight. The mids are clear and the upper range is adequate if a bit unfocused. I can't imagine any competitor in this price range. Makes me want to buy a record cleaner to enjoy my music even more.”
