Ortofon A90 with Graham Phantom

I have found a set of screws that will alloow me to fit the carbon fibre spacer and A90 onto the Phantom. This will allow all three feet of the A90 to be securely grounded.

Of course I found the screws after I moved the A90 to the Exclusive P3. So it will stay there for a while.

the carbon fibre headshell seems to be doing a very good job with my dyna XV-1. I think it sounds better balanced than just using the Phantom only. Might be somthing to think about for XV-1/Phantom users

The Ortofon Cadenza line has the same three nubs. I've been dissuaded from buying one, or the A90, for my Phantom II for this reason.

I ran across this carbon fiber spacer product from MusicDirect. It's rather expensive but might do the trick. Comes with a selection of long screws, too.

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/84232

Can't tell whether the three points will fit on the spacers, though, and the dimensions aren't published. Can any of you A90 owners guess at a glance whether these spacers might work?

Please excuse if I'm wrong, since I am speaking from experience with a MC Jubilee and a Graham 2.2, but I can see in that setup the very same visual discrepancy you describe with the A90/Phantom.

On the Jubilee there are three bumps at the top of the cartridge where it interfaces to the headshell. According to the Jubilee owners manual the purpose of these features are to provide approximately 2 degrees of azimuth adjustment.

What may not be clear is that the center ridge, that is the longer raised surface that runs partly down the middle from the cartridge front, is slightly higher in elevation than are the two raised bumps to the rear.

What this means is that the cartridge is intended to carry full contact, against the headshell, against the center ridge while it being optional as to which rear bump makes contact..... That means that Ortofon doesn't mind if one of those two rear bumps is not against the headshell.

As I take a close examination on my setup in use, it appears that, even though the Jubilee has two points of contact against the Graham headshell, the gaps seen between the low areas of the cartridge top surface and the headshell surface appear close to being uniform all over.

Fortunately with unipivots, azimuth adjustment isn't any kind of a problem. As to sra/vta, that's adjustable on the fly and none of us should have a problem dialing in that parameter even if your cartridge body isn't exactly parallel to the headshell....

I guess what I'm saying is; it probably wouldn't matter even if you did have enough headshell surface area to cover the three bumps, because the cartridge is going to be pressing its center ridge against the headshell and tipping ever so slightly to one side or the other.

-STeve

Wm57.

Those millenium headshells are the same as mine carbon fibre one, except that I only have one as it was given to me. From listening to it with the dyna XV-1, it sounds excellent as well.

Those carbon fibre headshell will fit no problems, in fact any headshell will fit on the A90 onto the Phantom.


I don't believe it is any problem using an ortofon cartridge with the Phantom as mentionbed by a few here.

I fould the A90 sounds superb with the Phantom as is, so IMO it is of no big concern. I will try the carbon fibre headshell with the A90 thou, but a bit later.

I spoke with Ortofon regarding the A90 and Phantom II and they assured me there are no issues what so ever.....it also was mentioned Bob Graham uses the A90 with his arms.

Dealer for Graham & Ortofon