Ortofon MC A90 cartridge

Diva

there is no harm in playing the A90. install it and play.

I am not expert on MS tables, but a Fidelity Research would probably go well with it.

A90 Alert!!!!

no, nothing wrong with my A90's. relax.

i would like to bring attention to an issue we discovered this past weekend we had 3 different A90's on three different tt's at the same time.....and .....they all had dramatically different ideal VTF's!

i have my first A90 which has approx 120 hours. it had been on my Triplaner/Garrard where we had found that 2.20 grams (as measured by a Winds gauge) was ideal. we had done this work when this A90 had about 90 hours on it. this past Saturday we mounted it on a new Reed 2P/Garrard and began our final set-up at 2.20 grams. we then spent the next 45 minutes (Steve Dobbins, Jonathan Tinn and myself) dailing it in. we went down and down and down....it just kept getting better. we never measured, just followed our ears. finally we settled on a VTF that was best. then we measured....1.55 grams!!!!

then we mounted Steve's A90 (with approx 40 hours on it) on 'the Beat' tt with a 10.5 inch Reed 2P. we went thru the same process and ended up at 1.91 grams.

lastly; my second Reed (with approx 60 hours on it) is on the Rockport and i had had it it at 2.20 grams. after those other experiences our eyes were openned. so we tried both heavier and lighter. we ended up at 2.06 grams.

all three of those experiences were last Saturday.

Sunday afternoon; before we packed up 'The Beat' we revisited the set-up on each tt. our prior set-ups held exactly the same.

note; we used both my Winds Gauge good to one hundreth of a gram and a similar gauge of Steve's which both calibrated to within one one-hundreth of a gram with each other. this was not an issue of questioned measurments.

we were all a bit confused by how we could have 3 so radically different VTF's on three same model cartridges. not only that; but the Ortofon A90 MC is likely the most consistent from piece to piece in actual contruction of any cartridge ever built. all three of these A90's sounded wonderful....marvelous.

my caution would be to keep your mind and ears open as to what VTF might be ideal for your A90. this is not onje of those times when you can be confident that another users experiences will be useful for your A90 set-up; ya gotta listen.

my second Reed (with approx 60 hours on it) is on the Rockport

typo---i meant my 2nd A90, not my second Reed (even thougfh i do have 2 Reeds).

Any idea how the A90 compared to the Clearaudio Goldfinger v2?

Changster;

back in 1999--2001 i owned a Clearaudio Insider Gold. it was an excellent cartridge at the time and replaced my much loved (and only recently sold) Koetsu RSP in my sustem. then i was exposed to the vdH Colibri; which suplanted the Insider in my system and i sold the Insider.

i have only heard the Goldfinger (v.2) at shows; where i have mostly liked it. at RMAF it has been on the big Clearaudio tt's in the Audio Unlimited rooms. if i had to guess about how it compares to the A90 i would say it's in the same general performance catagory. without spending time with a Goldfinger v.2 in my system it would be hard to speculate much more than that.