Fremer's review of the Anna cartridge

Hi Actusreus,

Thanks for reading and responding to my little story and sorry if I took your thread OT.

The person who pointed to RtC was indeed vilifying. His comments have been vile for as long as he's been around. I stand by that characterization.

My car example might not have been the most apropos, sorry, but there are other examples that resemble high end audio in their price extremes. Take other luxury consumer items like jewelry, designer perfumes, cosmetics and clothes, etc. Is a Tumi shoulder bag from Nordstroms or a 1 oz. bottle of perfume really worth $800 when I can buy a similar looking and functionally equivalent item for 1/10 the price at Macy's, or 1/100 the price at Target? Is a diamond earring really worth what it costs? We all know the markups on such products can match the most extreme ones found in audio, yet nobody spends time posting about how outrageous they are. They just buy whatever they're comfortable with and have done with it. I still believe there's something special about audio that brings out emotional responses like few other subjects.

That said, products should indeed work as designed and advertised, particularly premium-priced products. No quarrel there and you've every right to bring it up for discussion. Fremer may in fact have buried the Anna by divulging the problems he had. Perhaps that was his intent, to damn with faint praise. If so, it was artfully done. Ortofon may pay a price in lost sales for their apparent clumsiness. One needn't always call a spade a spade to help people recognize what's being shovelled. ;-)

I do not nor have ever owned any Ortofon cartridge let alone the Anna model. At an MSRP of $8,500 it would be more expensive than any single component I have ever purchased. That plus the critical nature of the setup, very low output and high retip costs means I will never own an Anna. Besides, I'm a Benz-Micro Ruby kind of guy.

Everybody has a right to express their opinion, but don't be surprised if someone else expresses an opinion about your opinion. You're outraged about the Anna's performance or lack thereof. Well I'm outraged about the level of your outrage. I think some of the comments here are way over the top. Particularly so if, like me, you are not in a position to judge the Anna's relative value.

One other point that deserves to be mentioned regarding the analogy of high end auto to high end audio (hmmm, only differing by 2 letters...coincidence???) is that there are generally accepted objective performance criteria for autos. Horsepower, torque, 0-60, 0-100, 100-0, skid pad G force. Subjective criteria also fairly well identified. Beauty, creature comfort, reliability. [Of course, NO ONE expects a high performance auto to rate high on reliability. But we do damn sure expect that when the dealership delivers it that it will start when asked and that the wheels will not fall off on the way home] W high perf. audio, we can measure some of the performance criteria (wow, flutter, certain kinds of distortion), cannot measure some, cannot agree on others (PRAT, "jump factor") and can agree that some are immune to measurement (ability to convey artist's intent...etc.) So I think that w such a subjective, potentially expensive, and emotionally involving past-time, people are more apt to have passionate disagreements. Also for whatever reason, with the large number of small manufacturers involved, it tends to be more "personal", and when it's personal, again, it has a tendency to become more emotional.

Also, not to be argumentative, but the folks who "tune" and race WRXs probably have no use for the guy who walks in, drops 180Gs on a Porsche 911 Turbo S and then blows them off at a stoplight.

Rant over. Doug, call me if you are still interested in talking about things swampy! Sorry for going OT, Acutusreus.

Onhwy61,

I read your comment in one of your post, "As an actual owner/user of the Anna I welcome your comments," to mean you owned an Anna. My bad.

You're outraged about the Anna's performance or lack thereof. Well I'm outraged about the level of your outrage. I think some of the comments here are way over the top. Particularly so if, like me, you are not in a position to judge the Anna's relative value.

I think you are misinterpreting what my original post was about. If not, we just might have to agree to disagree. I only commented on Fremer's experience while reviewing the Annas, not the performance of the product. I can't be outraged about the cartridge's performance since I've never heard it, and Fremer in the end gave it a stellar review. But as a vinylphile I was astounded (rage is definitely not what I felt, btw) reading the review. Astounded that it would take three units to finally get to a properly functioning unit and conduct a review of its actual performance, given its price and who was reviewing it. As a vinyphile with a passionate interest in anything analog-related, this to me is a perfect thing to bring up and discuss on an analog forum, regardless whether I currently own this cartridge. It either was a very odd and freaky set of circumstances or Ortofon has a problem that needs to be addressed. So yes, it should put a question mark on the Anna's value especially after Ortofon failed to address the issue in their comments, and we don't know why the problems occurred. That's why comments from actual owners are very useful in the discussion, and I certainly welcomed Mike's feedback. Why certain others chose to turn it into a personal criticism, I cannot answer.

Doug and Swapmwalker,
Your comments are always welcome so no need to apologize, especially after the thread took a wayward turn anyway.

I still believe there's something special about audio that brings out emotional responses like few other subjects.

I definitely agree. I also think Swapwalker made a good point regarding objective criteria in the high-end car industry vs. a more subjective nature of the high-end audio industry in comparison, which I think also applies to other luxury products you mentioned. The prices commanded can be for the most part explained by the laws of supply and demand, and further categorized by easily verifiable criteria such as diamond cut, clarity, color; Rolex model and materials used; same for Ferrari and other exotic makes; manufacture quality of a bag, etc. Sure the brand itself commands a premium, but the brand signifies top quality and performance, which can be more objectively verified than in the audio industry. I think therein lies the "problem." Nobody will question whether a Tiffany ring is worth $20K with the necessary certificates, but you'll surely see many who will tell you a $20K amplifier sounds like crap. As Swapmwalker noted, objectivity is not something we can easily employ in this hobby.