Fremer's review of the Anna cartridge

It would be interesting to hear from other Anna owners in this thread.

So far no actual Anna owner has said they had the same problem Fremer had.
If my count is correct, three Anna owners ( including me ) have responded with praise and no issues in this thread.

Weird that Fremer had two bad samples but would be really helpful to know if this was a case of lightning striking twice, or if there was/is a quality issue with the Anna.

I'm sure there are more than three Anna owners on Audiogon, so would be very interested to get their feedback.

The performance of the cartridge, however great or not so great, has little to do with the humor and irony of the Fremer review of it and the aforementioned D'Agostino silliness...the fact that it's all taken to be very unfunny is also pretty funny. A strong strain of geekdom insecurity winds its way through this entire subject, and I for one am grateful.

Thanks for you post Mike. This is the first I have read that that initial run of 8-10 cartridges were "pre-release" samples. Fremer makes no mention of this in the review.

Apparently, Fremer (and Mike) were acting as unofficial beta-testers. No one's surprised if a beta test reveals a problem, that's the point of beta-testing.

I don't understand why Ortofon didn't explain in their Manufacturer's Comments in Stereophile that the first preproduction batch had some problems and that production was stopped and the problems had been corrected before any were shipped for sale to the public. This thread wouldn't have been necessary.

Did they think that if they didn't say anything that no one would notice that Fremer had to return the first two samples?

A little more honest explanation and less hype and obfuscation would do the high-end a world of good.

Indeed. If Ortofon had addressed this there would have been nothing to discuss. In fact, their diligence in halting production until the problem was solved would have enhanced their image as a quality-concious company. By ignoring the obvious they turned an opportunity into an embarassment.

One of the biggest problems I run into every day in business is dealing with people who're reluctant to face difficult issues head-on. Sales and marketing types are frequent offenders. Their innate optimism causes them to sweep problems under the carpet and attempt to wish them away. That may be what happened here.

Doug,

just to clarify, my information was that this small group of Anna's were 'pre-release' not 'beta'. these were distributed for demo purposes prior to retail release. i was not given one of these directly, i was only able to buy one after it had been used as a demo at CES. i have no idea how many Anna's were built initially, only that this small group was the only one's distributed in this part of the world. none were given to dealers for customer orders. the lack of any Anna's in customer hands makes this 'pre-release'

but it does not make them 'beta-test'.

to me a 'beta-test' is different, and normally part of development prior to the final production run.

i just don't want to give the wrong impression about my understanding. maybe it reflects more negatively that they are 'pre-release' than 'beta'....but that is my understanding.

Doug, from the quote you used, I did not mean to imply that Mike and Fremer were beta testing these cartridges. Is there any mention of that anywhere? I'm not sure I'd assume that Ortofon was beta testing this batch of 8-10 with US customers. I would think that a company as large as Ortofon and with its resources would use different methods to test cartridges, but I may be mistaken.

Fremer's review reads like any other current production component review. There is no mention of beta testing or pre release in the review itself. I think Fremer got his three review samples from Ortofon directly. Also, it seems that Mike bought his Anna as a show-demo and that Fremer's review sample was not from this initial 8-10 US batch. It would be interesting to know how many of the 8-10 had problems and if this batch was produced before or after Fremer's three samples.

I agree that Ortofon should have just addressed this openly, honestly and early. Assuming the Anna sounds as wonderful as Mike describes, there will surely be many more sold with positive user reviews in the future.