Could it be that the humble Ortofon OM10 cartridge, available on ebay for under $50, it this good?
Tonight I took an expensive moving coil cart off of my Thorens turntable with Rega RB303 tonearm and placed the OM10 on it. Sounded nice and enveloping but a bit dull. Then I changed the capacitance loading on the phono stage from 200pF to 300pF and wow, this cart really sings.
This is what I'm hearing that is quite a surprise for a cart this cheap (but it no doubt helped by the high-end like quality of the Thorens TD321 turntable).
For:
- openness, space and air
- a solid and wide soundstage with good imaging.
- pretty good inner detail including for example the ability to separate instruments into space, and subtle reverb on vocals
- nice timbre on strings and bongos for example
- sweet mids and extended top end clarity with surprising sparkle
- coherent tonality and musicality
- neither aggressive or too laid back.
- enveloping and wide sound (this is the nature of the turntable)
Against:
- the stylus is only elliptical and there's surface noise here that's not on a fine line/ Shibata stylus
- slight edginess occasionally on top end, somewhat noisy in aggressive passages
- bass is there, but not to the same depths as a more expensive cart.
- less full blooded and less top end air than a more costly MC cart
On this particular turntable- arm combo I've previously had Denon DL110, Denon DL160, Ortofon Rondo Bronze, Shelter 201, AT95E - this is about the best it has sounded so far.
Tonight I took an expensive moving coil cart off of my Thorens turntable with Rega RB303 tonearm and placed the OM10 on it. Sounded nice and enveloping but a bit dull. Then I changed the capacitance loading on the phono stage from 200pF to 300pF and wow, this cart really sings.
This is what I'm hearing that is quite a surprise for a cart this cheap (but it no doubt helped by the high-end like quality of the Thorens TD321 turntable).
For:
- openness, space and air
- a solid and wide soundstage with good imaging.
- pretty good inner detail including for example the ability to separate instruments into space, and subtle reverb on vocals
- nice timbre on strings and bongos for example
- sweet mids and extended top end clarity with surprising sparkle
- coherent tonality and musicality
- neither aggressive or too laid back.
- enveloping and wide sound (this is the nature of the turntable)
Against:
- the stylus is only elliptical and there's surface noise here that's not on a fine line/ Shibata stylus
- slight edginess occasionally on top end, somewhat noisy in aggressive passages
- bass is there, but not to the same depths as a more expensive cart.
- less full blooded and less top end air than a more costly MC cart
On this particular turntable- arm combo I've previously had Denon DL110, Denon DL160, Ortofon Rondo Bronze, Shelter 201, AT95E - this is about the best it has sounded so far.