Ortofon SPU Century, time to celebrate the heritage?

My experience with SPU started with Classic GM mkII with conical tip and it was awful cartridge, but i decided to try limited edition SPU SPIRIT model with special coil wire and elliptical tip and it was much better. However, even my brand new SPU Spirit was not good for me, because i’ve noticed miss tracking even with the right settings of everything, so i sent it back for refund to Japanese shop where it came from. I promissed myself never go back to the SPU cartridges, but 4-5 years later i bought very best SPU i have ever tried. This was the SPU Royal G MKII with ORTOFON REPLICANT 100 stylus. That was the ONLY SPU with proper stylus and the sound it truly amazing for an SPU cartridge. The replicant 100 stylus (almost like Frits Gyger tip) in fact is not so difficult in set-up as i thought. It was easy to make my SPU Royal sing, the sound is so sweet. Anyway, i ended up with Fidelity-Research FR-7 series of cartridges, this is probably my last destination when it comes to low compliance headshell-integrated cartridges for heavy tonearms.

@chakster, Thanks for joining the SPU Anniversary party!
The Classic GME mk2 (with elliptical tip) didn't convince me either, although I wouldn't exactly call it awful (in my opinion that qualification would better suit the Denon DL-103 series). When used in the right system (i.e. not too high end) the Classic can sound beguiling and musical, but the limitations are still obvious.

The 90th Anniversary on the contrary is one of the most 'complete' cartridges I ever heard. Nothing sticks out or calls to its attention, but still everything is there. It has that magical balancing act of clarity and warmth at the same time (not unlikely the FR-7 series). No special tip profile like the Royal, just a regular elliptical tip (similar to the Classic GME mk2). Amazing cartridge!

So the Royal would clearly be an interesting one. How about the Gold Reference, which also had the Replicant 100 tip? Or should the Royal be regarded as the succesor of the Gold Reference?

The GOLD Reference series is from 1989, the Royal GM is from 1998
The Royal G MKII with Replicant 100 is the later/improved version of that first Royal.  

But thanks for pointing me to the stylus tip of the Gold, i thought Royal G mkII is the only one with Replicant 100 

When i bought that Classic GM i had ZYX Airy cartridge and SPU was a garbage compared to ZYX, i was expecting "musicality and so on", but in fact it was just rolled off sound, not interesting at all to my ears. 

I can not say it about Spirit LTD or Royal G mkII which i enjoyed on Lustre GST-801 tonearm.

I am not expert in SPU, Ortofon made so many models to hook up SPU lovers forever. Smart marketing! I think any SPU over $2K is a rip-off. 

@chakster, smart marketing for sure. The trophy hunters just love 'limited editions'. And in my opinion ANY cartridge over $2k is a rip off, not just SPU's. I must admit I'm guilty of paying a bit more than that on a few occasions, but I draw the line at $2.5k.

After all, how much 'stuff' is in there to justify current pricing tactics? And how much R&D time can still be 'invested' to a technology that is basically unchanged in over 50 years?

The obscene pricing for MC's - like all things in high end audio - in recent years is disgraceful and it is unfortunate that even Ortofon has now joined this trend. So perhaps we should concentrate on past achievements instead and figure out which of these stand out from the crowd.

A fool and his money are soon parted. 

A bargain compared to the $16K Grado!

The trophy hunters just love 'limited editions'. And in my opinion ANY cartridge over $2k is a rip off, not just SPU's. I must admit I'm guilty of paying a bit more than that on a few occasions, but I draw the line at $2.5k.

In my opinion, I cannot disagree more.  Declaring "ANY" phono cartridge over $2k is a rip off is rather like saying any digital playback source, amp, preamp, cables, turntable, loudspeaker over $(insert arbitrary number)k is a rip off.  So many factors come into play when assembling a system for real musical synergy, nothing is that black and white.    

When the Ortofon MC Century arrives, even if it does not meet my already high expectations, or if for any reason it's playback characteristic "flavor" is quite not to my liking within my personal system and room, then the piece will be sold, plain and simple.  And this of course would not automatically mean the cartridge is "bad" or a "rip off", in fact I will remain grateful to have had the rare fortune and opportunity to own such a world class phono cartridge from a company dedicated to analog who's legacy spans some 100 years.  This is a hobby to celebrate music, albeit an expensive one but so enjoyable nevertheless. 

@ferrari275, I may have been a bit harsh there and it certainly wasn’t my intention to question anyone’s buying decisions. That is not my concern and none of my business.

My ’call to arms’ is motivated by a genuine concern that the high end audio ’industry’ is far too busy making expensive ’trophies’ for the 1%. That’s not celebrating music, but ’celebrating’ conspicuous consumption.

Just look at the many $100k+ speakers, amplifiers and turntables at the recent Munich event. With such components there is still ’some’ justification to the spiralling prices, as these may require serious R&D, high tech engineering and significant amounts of ’stuff’ in small production runs.

But seriously, phono cartridges? The technology is basically unaltered in 50 years, there isn’t much ’stuff’ to begin with and the time to build a cartridge by an experienced technician is just a matter of hours, not days.

One example to ’prove’ my point. Transfiguration recently released a Proteus with diamond cantilever at $10k. The regular Proteus with boron cantilever at $4000 is a really nice system. The new one possibly sounds even better, but charging $6000 extra for adding a piece of industrial grade diamond to an otherwise identical cartridge is just ludicrous.

There is no longer any intrinsic connection between performance and price with these ’objects of desire’. The logic appears to be ’the more expensive, the more desirable’. Maybe folks buying these things take after their female companions, thinking ’diamonds are a man’s best friend’. John Cale would disagree.....

+1 edgewear! How about that new $16K Grado (!!!) that MF raved about in Stereophile? These ultra-expensive cartridges are the equivalent of diamond-encrusted watches!