Ortofon A90 or Air Tight PC-1

Of these two cartridges specifically, I'd suggest the A90 would be the preferred choice. This is based on time with both cartridges and looking at the other components in your system. My opinion, which is all it is, is to give a preference for the A90.

tas issue 206 oct 2010 anolog issue; "This survey originally included the $4200 Ortofon A90 cartridge", "Upon reading the review preprint, the manufacturer suggested that the sample was either defective or incorrectly setup."

Koegz,

That is very interesting. Could one infer that the reviewer(s) from TAS did not like the sound of the A90? I have not received that issue yet. Do you know what other cartridges are in the survey and who wrote it?

I will be hearing a direct comparison between the A90 and my actual PC-1 in about two weeks in a friend's system. Though this won't be a good as hearing the A90 in my system, the comparison should be revealing. If I can then borrow an A90, I will compare them again in my own system. Regardless, I will report here my impressions.

Peter

Being a later comer to the discussion, I read most but not all of the comments. I am running the A90 with the Reed tonearm and with Pass Labs Xono Phono Stage (shall be writing a review of the A90 and Reed arm soon). The A90 to me is a near-perfect piece of engineering that is squeezing the maximum out of the LP and feed it through the tonearm to a phone stage. That is why there are so many opinions because people have different phono stages and hence different component synergy. My comments may be not directly related to the discussion but could not help but chime in.

Harry pearson reviewed ZYX Omega, Kubotech Haniwa, My Sonic Labs Eminent, Miyajima Shilabe, Dynavector XV-1T, Clearaudio Goldfinger V2 and Benz LP 5-MR. His review, " It is immediately apparent that the Goldfinger stands alone. It is like the turntable for which it was designed, a statement." I personally concur. I have been on the up grade train for many yrs and never before did one item make such a drastic(in a great way) difference. It, the golgfinger V2, is the best money I have ever spent on audio equipment. I can not image, even though clearaudio claims an upgrade is comming, any cart. sounding better!