Ortofon A90 or Air Tight PC-1

I own the Ortofon A90 and can switch between it and three other cartridges with my phono stage.

Although testing is not complete and I'm having to go somewhat from memory about PC-1 since I've upgraded to the Air Tight Supreme.

The Ortofon is good but no contest against the Air Tight Supreme or my Koetsu Coralstone. Then again, the Ortofon is much less money than either of those.

My memory of the PC-1 says I would prefer it over the Ortofon, in fact my Haniwa cartridge is also beating the Ortofon in my system. Again, the Ortofon is the least expensive of these four cartridges which makes it (sort of) the winner if only by price.

Dlanselm,

I'm not through testing either, I plan to move the Ortofon to the Audiocraft AC4400 and see it that improves things.

I do agree with your comments:

I thought the A-90 sounded way to bright/lean/mechanical pick your adjective on the SME V. That being said I have the A-90 sounding better than I ever had either of Air Tight's sounding on a Reed Tonearm.

In my case the test is with SME 312S which is very well damped Magnesium and a new German tonearm I recently received and testing.

The other tests are by my best friend in my local audio group who owns the Dynavector XV1s, Air Tight Supreme, Koetsu Coralstone, Ortofon (in Reed tonearm) and also owns Fidelity Research FR66s and Audiocraft AC4400.

In his system the Ortofon is also rated last place, he also preferred the Allarts to the Ortofon but in that case I held reverse opinion.

Have owned or now own ALL of Albert's cartridges mentioned except the Fidelity and Audiocraft [even his friends Jan Allaerts]

The weak link for most is the SME 5 [sorry David...:-) ] The REAL WINNER is each in the Reed Arms!! This arm has benefits to suit all of the above...
Azjake (Threads | Answers | This Thread)

A lot of people love the SME 5, so it must have merit. I won't comment beyond that since I've not heard one in my own system.

As I said, I'm not giving up on the Ortofon, I own it and intend to try it in several tone arms and then decide. One experienced Ortofon owner who's opinion I respect said it required nearly a hundred hours to max out.

My Ortofon has about 40 hours break in as of today, which another person I respect says is already "there" based on his experience.

Goes to show that we don't all seem to agree, even when discussing the same cartridge.

That said it aint ever going to sound like a Lyra or koetsu
Downunder (System | Threads | Answers | This Thread)

Can you explain your comments? I would love to know what you think are the performance differences between those three.

Thuchan, I have three arm wands for my NOS Audiocraft AC4400, do you think the AP-2L (straight) would be good for the Ortofon?

If not, how about the heavy "S" version (I have it too).

Raul,

Tonearm wire is already changed and I have Ortofon brand silver headshell wire in place plus a spare Audiocraft headshell for my S arm.

If you read back a few posts, Thuchan suggests the straight arm for Ortofon and leave the heavier "S" arm for another cartridge.

Currently the "S" wand is in place with Koetsu Coralstone and the two seem well matched, the sound is superb.

Louis (my friend with Kharma that you heard) is using a Coralstone with Fidelity Research FR66S and he thinks it may even be a better match than the Audiocraft AC4400 with S wand.

each one of us it does not matters if we are hearing music in a live event or through a Sonny Walkman.

Portable music player autographed by Sonny Rollins?