Ortofon MC A90 cartridge

Hi Andrew

Any further thoughts, Yes, that the millenium mat is now an obvious weakness.

When I put the A90 back onto the Raven (I had not really played it for two mnths when the A90 was on the P3), I felt that the raven was just too reserved and big easy smooth. It could not compete with the P3 on speed, drive and tempo.

Took it off and just used no mat - copper top. WOW big difference. A lot better drive in the bass and music sounds better with great tempo. copper top might be a bit too much in the upper frequencies

The millenium mat is a little laid back tempo wise and soft in the leading edge and bass a little rounded.

playing around with a few mat options at the moment, however the raven is a lot closer to the P3 with the millenium mat gone.

The A90 lets you hear it all :-)

What mat do you use?

cheers

Shane,

Great ears hear alike. Great minds think alike too. You are spot-on with your opinion of the Millenium mat.

I was using the Millenium mat until about 9 months ago. I removed the mat and heard the same type of observations you noted.

The mat obscures microdynamics and slows the speed and tempo.

The soundstage is much clearer and larger without the mat. One can "hear into" the recording better without the mat. The mat flattens the soundstage height/depth.

Just about everything improves with the copper top only compared to the Mellenium.

By the way, I had tried different mats and trying the copper top only about 1.5 year ago when I had my Triplanar. The triplanar was not able to detect the differences between the mats like the Phantom 2 does.

I don't use a mat any longer. Let me know if you come up with something better than the copper top only.

Andrew

Mine just arrived. Have not installed it yet. I have Micro Seiki RX-1500 with SME3009R.

Hi Diva, great system - plenty of luvely tubes!!

let us know how it sounds on the might Micro. Should sound sweet as.

BTW, what phono stage do you have - tube research?

cheers

Downunder: Thanks. You too have good a nice one, especially those Sonus Fabers look like a stunning Italian beauty. I guess you are located downunder? Which city?

My phonstage is a modest musical fidelity but I am building my own based on the same principle that was used my X-2 pre-amp (see the review of that preamp in product review section, if you curious).

Has anyone compared the A-90 with the ZYX Universe?