Fremer's review of the Anna cartridge

Despite the impression which you may now have, there is no industry standard for SRA. None. There is more of a standard for VTA (originally decided as 15 degrees, which is the origin of Shure's "V-15" name, and later gradually revised upwards until it reached 20 degrees) than there is for SRA.

Yes. But now we have a "Standard": Fremer
That replaces everything.

If it takes them 3 tries to get it right for Michael Fremer, you can guess how much care they take in making the one they sell you.

The customer gets the most respect, the maximum care, the ultra quality control, don't worry.

Does anyone else think this is absolutely nuts?

That's High End. On the other side he never checked the speed stability from his turntable recommendations...

It seems to me, at this price level, every single cartridge should be absolutely perfect.

Don't be so picky. Koetsu has normally a non straight cantilever and get one huge recommendation after the next ...

... Atlas cartridge had the stylus affixed to the cantilever at an angle that made it virtually impossible to get the SRA of 92 degrees.

Hm, cheap cartridges are bought mainly from persons who need some time to get the money for it and they are critical...other customers don't care and can afford that. They prefer stoning the messenger instead... that is much more fun :-)

This is a cutting edge product reaching for state of the art performance ...

Interesting how easy any product gets such merits.
All it needs is a high price and most fall onto their knees?

Ortofon is probably the largest cartridge manufacturer in the world

Quantity is not Quality and Ortofon is mainly known for low price Systems. But time will tell how good it really is. The A-90 was transformed from a hyped swan to a duck after 1000h. Great Design indeed.

... doesn't reflect the actual cost to the manufacturer of that repair. That's why SoundSmith and many others can do the same repair for much fewer dollars. The manufacturer is counting on audiophilia nervosa to drive the consumer back to him no matter what the cost.

The manufacturers get the same money. The difference is the mark up for the Importer and the Dealer. Both want money for writing a new address and buying some stamps for shipping.

The best Cartridge is always

- the more expensive one
or
- the next

Any manufacturer needs to have a very expensive nit (cartridge, Arm, Amp ...) for some simple reasons

1. He needs it when he wants to be taken serious

2. He needs it for his dealers (profit)
and in a way for his own to make some money with a few sold items instead of selling 50 of the cheap ones.

Anyone who saves the money for such an item WANTS it to be better than his pervious one. Maybe it is better, maybe it is worth the price difference, maybe.... maybe...in the end it is the decision of the buyer.
A review can be a review, it can be also a Product Placement, it can be a opinion from a reviewer who likes or dislikes something. It doesn't matter. Important is the product placement.
What is the definition of "good" or "great"?
Mainly it is also a personal impression, the majority does not really compare, (what they do it, do I like it better than the one before), only a minority compares a unit with a cheaper, but "good" one.
This is the main reason why a top cartridge for a low price (whatever this will be) will never get the respect it deserves, because everyone (or 95%) thinks, "hey, this is a top one for 2k but there is the next for 4.5K, and that's the game.
There are also a group of Audiophiles out there who WANT to spend minimum 8k for a cartridge/cable/Arm...and a Dealer wants to serve.
Maybe Ortofon had a problem with Quality control who knows. But what would happen when the Cartridge was ok, but not for the reviewer for whatever reasons. Some of them have a very big Ego. They have a very strong position and no Manufacturer will write that a reviewer is simply too handicapped to do it right...
Each his own but all of you read the reviews, all of you have an opinion and I think all of you had the experience that a Class A or B rating in whatever mag is simply wrong in Past or Presence.
No matter which Product, good or bad, cheap or expensive, you will find for everything someone who loves it and recommends it. Based on various reasons (Profit, saving, limited funds, endless funds, fun, color, Style, reputation and so on), sound quality or Performance is not always the priority. It is in discussions among us but there is always the golden rule of audio: Ask 4 Audiophiles and you get 5 opinions.
At the end of day it is a personal choice.