I need some advice, gentlemen. I have owned and loved what is now a vintage Linn LP-12 with a late production Ittok tonearm (black!) fitted with the matching Troika cartridge I bought new in 1989. Properly sited on a wall shelf, it is the only component that has survived my audiophile journey, consistently performing and sounding beautiful without ever a hitch.
Until now.
As you would expect, the Troika has been retipped/rebuilt four times now, the first three by Linn, the last one just a couple years ago by Soundsmith, who installed a jeweled (ruby or sapphire, I forget) cantilever and a micro ridge stylus rather than the aluminum cantilever and Vital stylus Linn installed. The problem since that last retip/rebuild is now I get excessive woofer flutter where there has been little before. The subsonic filter on my Luxman L-590AxII usefully helps, but I realize that’s a bandaid and it’s time to rip that bandaid off.
I narrowed my cartridge choices down to three that fit my taste and budget: the Luxman LMC-5, Ortofon Cadenza Bronze, and, obviously, the Linn Krystal. Since there’s no Luxman dealer <300 miles away, that would be mail order and self-installed and at $2700 I would insist on that service, so that’s probably a no go. The Linn Krystal is an obvious choice, attractively priced and there’s a trade-in available for my Troika, but reviews have been scarce for a cartridge that’s been out for so long and the reviews I did see often mention that the sound can lean to forward and a bit bright, but more concerning is the cantilever failure frequently mentioned..
My first choice, and still is, is the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze highly reviewed as having a relaxed sound without sacrificing detail, and a propensity for rejecting surface noise. Ortofon maintains that it is a good match for my Ittok. Plus, the Ortofon dealer is also the guy who’s kept my LP-12 maintained and is local. My reservation concerning the Bronze is the Replicant stylus profile as being very severe, even more so than the Shibata profile, and would be extremely sensitive to VTA and stylus rake adjustment. I’m a set and forget kind of guy at my age and the Troika was fine with the Ittok arm tube dead-nuts parallel to the record surface with every LP I own from tissue-thin 85G Dynaflex RCA’s to the 200G patio stone audiophile releases sold today. FWIW my associated components are a Luxman L-590AxII integrated, an Ortofon ST-80SE SUT, Sonus Faber Maxima Amator speakers, and VPI HW-16.5 RCM.
Your thoughts and experiences would be greatly appreciated!
