A cartridge with more bite, please and thank you


My Hana SL is a little soft sounding for the Linn LP12/Cirkus/Mober supchassis/Alphason Xenon MCS and I'm looking for some direction and insight. My phono preamp is a Supratek Syrah.

Thinking about Ortofon Cadenza Bronze, ZYX Ultima 100 and Soundsmith Paua. Anybody out there compare these? Heard any of them on a similar set up? Or, have other recommendation that would mate well?

 

I see a lot Ortofon recommendations for Alphason, the ZYX reviews well and Soundsmith is right down the river - I've enjoyed their lower models and like the rebuild concept and pricing. That said, best sound is best sound!

Oh, I'm also open to having the Alphason rewired - I'm not sure that's the biggest priority right now, but it's tempting...

Muchas gracias and happy holidays!

budburma

Showing 1 response by dogberry

No one has taken you up on the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze, I see. I believe it it described by Ortofon as the successor to the Kontrapunkt C, which I know and love. The Black is supposed to be equivalent to the old Jubilee. If that is true, the Bronze is worth a listen.

I have not heard the Paua, but have a Sussurro MkII. It's a workmanlike cartridge, plays music and doesn't inspire me to switch on my amps. The Grado Statement 3 is rather similar, polite and accurate. We pay all sorts of lip service to components that 'have no sound of their own' - that do not colour the sound (though that quality does sound less attractive if we describe it as 'colourless'!) But when I play a disk with either the London Reference or the Kontrapunkt C, I know I won't stop at one record. I'll be excitedly pulling them off the shelves and finding it hard to stop even though bedtime has long gone. Is that because they are 'colourful' - that they add something attractive and addictive to the sound, or is it that they just get something right that fools me into feeling it is like live music? I don't know, but they reliably do it for me.