Cadenza Bronze on a Fatboy

Problem solved. I traded for a Hana Umami Red.

It is normal for the Cadenza series and that’s why I would never own one. It is simply a poor design to have the heel ride so close to the playing surface when properly set up. Try playing a warped record at 45 rpm and see if it makes repeated contact with the LP. 

That is not normal behavior for Cadenza series. All of the Kontrapunkt, Cadenza, Jubilee, and Windfeld lines have that same design and none of them should hit the record (even on moderate warps) when properly setup UNLESS the cartridge in question is defective or damaged. I've had 7 of these cartridges now. If it's riding that low you need to contact Ortofon or the seller. 

Only time I've seen a Cadenza hit the record was when it was mistakenly put on a Project Debut where the metal platter pulled on the cartridge magnet. Whoops!

@travisg , "Am I in trouble?" Did you shim the height of the Wall Reference to match the height of the mating surface of the cartridge from the record with the stylus in the groove with proper VTF set? If so than as long as the Wally Reference sits perfectly flat on the record in both directions you should be in good shape with an Ortofon. As long as a warped record does not launch the tonearm it is OK. 

There is always the slight chance that it is a defective or damaged cartridge, but there is no way for any of us to know that without an obvious defect which I assume you would notice, it being obvious. 

I'm no Porsche owner, but I can say that my Kontrapunkt C, Cadenza Bronze and Cadenza Mono don't hit any records. Sure, I flatten really warped records with a well-known heating device. The only cartridge that really has an issue with warped records is the one that will never be prised from my cold, dead hands, the London Decca Reference.

@dsockel My point is that doing so will illustrate the fundamental design flaw in the Cadenza series—that the heel of the cartridge rides far too close to the record surface when properly set up and only gets worse when adjusting VTA toward tail down. Why should the end user have to forgo playing warped LPs anyhow? The situation is similar to folks who pay gobs of money for a 911 Porsche without understanding basic vehicle dynamics—the weight of the engine is behind the rear wheels making the car prone to excessive oversteer at best and loss of control at worst when cornering at speed. You can’t fight the physics on this one which is why a midengine car or front engine with a transaxle (all else being equal) will run a 911 off the road. I’ll duck out here and let the 911 fans pile on! 

Not sure why anyone would play a warped record at 45 RPM on a $2,000 cartridge but maybe that's just me.  I have used a Cadenza Bronze on my VPI Prime (standard arm) for 2 years and play exclusively older records from the 50s-60s and never had a problem. 

It is normal for the Cadenza series and that’s why I would never own one. It is simply a poor design to have the heel ride so close to the playing surface when properly set up. Try playing a warped record at 45 rpm and see if it makes repeated contact with the LP. 

Following a procedure I saw on YT (by Ortofon), I get the cantilever roughly right as a way of getting the SRA in the ballpark. Then I can do the more fiddly photos of the stylus itself to get that adjusted as close to 92 as I can. Then I go and change it all after listening to it!

@dogberry thank you. 

@dogberry what protractor/setup are you using to look at the angle? In the pic it's at 23 degrees what is your goal?

Can’t imagine how you are getting that unless the cartridge is really short.

Here's a photo of my Cadenza Bronze when I started to align it. The protractor is set to measure the cantilever angle, and you can tell the back of the cartridge needs to drop a bit more for the SRA to be right. My later pics were all zoomed in on the stylus so you don't see the cartridge.

Yes, it does ride very low.