Ortofon A90 or Air Tight PC-1

Dear Peterayer: If you analyze each one audio system of the persons that already posted here then you can/could understand why the " differences ".

I know very well Ortofon cartridges and, at least in this forum, for the very first time people are " talking " on Ortofon.

I own or owned several top of the line LOMC cartridges like: MC30, MC2000, MC3000, MC3000MK2, MC5000, MC7500, Rohman, Windfeld and the A-90 ( that I heard several times in my system borrowed for my friend. ).
IMHO there is a common characteristic that over the time Ortofon was/is coming refined: accuracy that for Ortofon means: lowering colorations/distortions ( that Downunder name it like " neutrality ". ).

Independent of the critical importance of any cartridge precise set up and tonearm matching many of us are accustom to cartridge " colorations " performance that in the A-90 are lower and different than what we heard through other cartridges.

In some ways maybe we have to " switch " our sound/music " normal " perception to the A-90 different one.

The other subject is that with a cartridge like the A-90 that posses that kind of accuracy the phono stage quality performance has to be first rate because the cartridge will point out the phono stage deficiences that even changing load impedance can't be fixed.

One factor that could help those A-90 owners that are not totally satisfied with or people that does not like it against other cartridges is that you can/could try different tonearm/cartridge " geometry " set up: Baerwald, Löfgren or Stevenson and hear what works best for you. Of course that you can try this kind of set up with any cartridge too. IMHO worth to try it always that you can do it, this makes a difference.

Btw, Albert you don't " take " my point: please forget about weight and be in focus with diferent headshell build material: this fact mainly is what makes the difference in the cartridge sound quality performance. The S shaped arm wand target is precisely that you can choose several and different build material headshell testing in which one the cartridge shows its best. What I'm telling you does not interfere in any way with the Thuchan advise or that you are using that S shaped arm wand with other cartridge,anyway your call.
In the other side the tonearm damping fluid makes a difference too. Good to know that all your Audiocraft arm wands are already internal re-wired as the tonearm too.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Rauliruegas ,you have me almost convinced(laugh).

Nolitan, not to flame or anything

If the A90 is sounding bland etc, I would be looking at the system being played, not the cartridge.

Sounds like they may need to go back to their cartridges with MSG :-)

Downunder,

The guys that have played with the A90 are veterans as they have numerous carts they owned and collected. One chap has 10 carts in his stable: Clearaudio Titanium, Airtight PC1 Supreme, Mysonic Labs Hyper eminent, Miyabi 47, Koetsu Blue Lace, Dynavector XV1t, Miyajima Shilabe, and A90.
there set-up is also very well tuned as they have been vinyl addicts for years.
In the same way, when i heard the A90 at my buddy's setup, its the same experience we have heard. It has all the audiophile qualities to be expected in a cart but lacks that musicality, "soul" as some would say.
Nonetheless, its perhaps the synergy, or some other factors that we are getting this particular result.
I myself is very puzzled because the reviews from magazines of the A90 has been nothing but exemplary.

Anyways, since there is a large variable playing when doing analog, I would leave our observations at that until such time we can hear the A90 perform as the way it should perform as indicated by the positive reviews on the net and the magazines.,