Ortofon MC A90 cartridge

JFrench

comparisons - hmmm - always difficult. My dyna XV-1 has been my reference for quite a while now.

In my system the A90 seems to have an uncanny ability to easily differentiate musical and recorded differences more from album to album. This is also the case even from track to track differences more than any other cartridge I have heard.
It always does this with control,poise and an eveness without any frequency spotlighting or other obvious downsides. The A90 is sounding more like my system and its voicing than a cartridge - which is what I luv.

That the A90 can sound absolutely wonderful on a current Raven AC3/Phantom combo, but equally well on a 30 year old Exlusive P3 DD table says something.

The dyna in comparison has a signature sound that you hear from album to album. Listening to the dyna in isolation you would not really think that.

I really think Ortofon are onto something special with their unique SLM manufacturing process to make the cartridge body.

Mike is buying another A90 and I am almost at the same decision point, so I guess you know how we feel :-)

Mike, I did not wish to play that game of value for money. I actually think that the M20FL Super is delightful in its own rite/right/wright (never knew which form was correct for this phrase). Just consider it as another cartridge, if you get a chance to listen to one. In fact, since I have two, one of which is still in its box, I would be willing to lend you one of mine. My first one sounded excellent right out of the box but got much better after 2-4 hours and a couple of tours of the Cardas test LP.

I know nothing about the Jubilee; that's another kettle of fish. I suspect that the MC7500 is superior to the Jubilee, but I have no data to support that idea.

Having used the Jubilee for couple of years before acquiring the A90, I can say emphatically that the latter is on a completely different performance plane.

The Jubilee does share some of the same ease (tracking prowess?) and throws a pretty big stable soundstage while balancing neutrality and robustness well.

But the Jubilee does not have anything like the open window clarity of the A90. The A90 throws a wider deeper stage and has far more life and transient quickness. The top end of the A90 kills the Jubilee.

As others have said, the A90 is a real chameleon, it's sound can change dramatically from record to record and track to track (the Jubilee does this to a lesser extent). The field of depth is greatly expanded - records recorded distantly from the mics sound further back, upfront recordings further forward. But it's the clarity/transparency I can't get over. It's the first really expensive cartridge i've owned, so maybe this is par for the course, but it's made my (relatively modest) system sound much more transparent than I thought it could.

If you want hear back into the recording and be put in touch with the musicians, this is a great cartridge.

The posts above summed it up well. This cartridge's clarity is amazing.

Hi MikeL - I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the A90/Reed combo. Steve has said good things about it, and I'm taking the leap on a Reed 2P. I'd be curious to hear your impressions as well. - Chris

Dear Downunder: I don't own the A-90 but I already heard it in my system, here is what I posted that time:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1200430667&openflup&1026&4#1026

Ortofon was in this cartridge market for so many years, I always admire their skills/knowledge about. Why their top LOMC cartridges were not " inside " the high-end community day by day " mouth "? is something that I can't explain due to Ortofon great cartridges quality performance.

I'm glad that with the A-90 things are improving in this regard as improving is their cartridge top performance.
The A-90 motor/stylus is similar of that of the Windfeld and the 7500 model but that A-90 new cartridge body makes a difference for the better making " dust " several top today LOMC cartridges, of course that each cartridge performance is system dependent and owner dependent but with the A-90 I think that any one that can hear it will concur on its very high quality performance.
No I don't go/run to buy it but I like it.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.