Fremer's review of the Anna cartridge

I read the review and thought it was good reporting. Fremer clearly outlined all the problems he had with the product and gave a description of what he heard. I would catergorize the comments in this thread about price, cost to retip and cartridge life as besides the point. This is a cutting edge product reaching for state of the art performance and either you can afford it or you can't.

Ortofon is probably the largest cartridge manufacturer in the world. I applaud Ortofon for trying to advance vinyl performance. The cutting edge has never been plug in and play.

Actusreus, if there wasn't an issue with faulty components would you be placing an order for an Anna?

The question about whether you were ordering an Anna goes like this -- if you are someone who can afford and/or own this cartridge, or a similar class cartridge, then your opinion about its build quality, stylus life and Ortofon's quality control and service is informative and meaningful. If you are someone who cannot afford and/or does not own this cartridge, or a similar class cartridge, then your opinions on these subjects is, shall we say, less informed and less meaningful.

Being the oldest continuous manufacturer and largest volume producer of phono cartridges is in no way correlated with the quality of their product. It's a coincidence, right?

I've owned an Ortofon MC Anna for 14 months.

And how is that relevant to the discussion?

Mikelavigne, my post about relevancy was meant as humor. My true opinion on this topic is contained in my earlier post dated 5/5. As an actual owner/user of the Anna I welcome your comments. I can only speculate as to whether the OP welcomes your comments in that he seems to have made up his mind, along with others, about the Anna "debacle". Yes, someone actually used that word to describe the course of events outlined in the review.

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.

So would you feel better, or at least less upset, if the manufacturer had tested and hand selected the cartridge in a manner not available to normal purchasers?

Whether the cartridge cost $10k or $100 it should be functional and meet its specs right out of the box. The unfortunate reality is that this minimal condition is not always met. Mercedes cars do get recalled, your $10 million custom home can have HVAC issues and Boeing spent $32 billion developing and testing the 787 Dreamliner and still had electric problems when the jet was put in service. Since things can go wrong the real issue then becomes how do companies deal with in service design problems. According to the MF review Ortofon replaced the cartridge. The fact that they had to provide a replacement twice is downright embarrassing, but as a consumer what more can you ask the company to do? There are details missing in the review, but I would want Ortofon to provide a prompt replacement, at no cost and with little or no questions. If that's the case, then Ortofon acted in a classy manner.

If I was an owner of an Anna and I read the review I would be disturbed. I'd contact my dealer and Ortofon and get a detailed explanation of what the problem is and whether my cartridge was effected. I probably send it back Ortofon to have them inspect my cartridge, at their cost.

If I didn't own an Anna and I read the review, I'd think what does any of that have to do with me?

I'm not going to speculate what Ortofon will do, but this is what I would do if I were a cartridge manufacturer in a similar situation. I would contact each registered purchaser of the cartridge and offer an explanation of what the problems with MF's review samples were. I would further offer any owner a factory review and re-certification of their cartridge at no cost. If during that review process a cartridge is determined to be out of spec or defective I would offer a free repair or replacement. For cartridges that I determined to be past their useful life due to normal wear and tear I would offer a reduced price replacement. Cartridges that I deem to have been mishandled or abused would be handled on a case by case basis.