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Recommend an MC cartridge

I have a Pure Fidelity Harmony TT with an Audio Origami PU7 tonearm and Stratos cart (modified Gold Note Donatello Gold) and have ordered a Whest Titan Pro phono stage. I'm looking for a suitable cartridge to replace the Stratos. I prefer something from My Sonic Lab, Ortofon or Hana.

Any suggestions?

dwcda

Showing 2 responses by cundare2

cundare2
288 posts
 

++1 on the Hana Umamis. They enjoy a broadly held reputation for (pardon the cliche) punching above their respective weight classes in the $2500 / $4000 range.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/recommended-components-2023-edition-phono-cartridges

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/hana-umami-blue-phono-cartridge/

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/the-hana-umami-blue-moving-coil-cartridge-review/

 

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I should also mention that WAM Engineering usually stocks a few units of both Umami models that it has photographed & analyzed microscopically for research purposes before releasing for sale, allowing buyers to accurately set a purchased unit’s rake & VTA (most precisely done with the company’s WallyTools). WAM throws in the analysis for free, which seems like a pretty good deal. (I plan to buy one myself in the next month or so.)

cundare2
288 posts
 
@porchlight1:

"I have been selling and installing (and inspecting under a stereoscopic microscope) cartridges since the late 80’s. My experience has shown that Ortofon cartridges are by far the most consistent in manufacturing."

 

Not to start a thing, but my relatively limited experience differs from yours. When I had my Ortofon 2M Black analyzed by WAM, the stylus was way off along every degree of freedom. I realize that the standard deviation of a single sample is infinity, but the owner & chief engineer of WAM, who has analyzed thousands of cartridges, confirmed that Ortofons are, like most carts, rarely if ever spot on.

I realize that we may be comparing apples to oranges, since I don’t even know what you mean by "inspecting" -- e.g., do you break in the cartridges suspension before measuring azimuth, SRA, VTA, etc. -- so I apologize if I’m making a bad assumption. But having researched this topic in great depth myself, if only on paper, I believe that, even if a cartridge is manufactured by a company that is "one of the most consistent," that’s hardly sufficient to justify an assumption that it can be aligned by simply setting the tonearm parallel to the record surface. Doing so blindly (at least with a non-spherical stylus) is almost certain to result in misalignment. The sad truth is that the cantilvers & styluses of even five-figure cartridges are usually out of spec, sometimes so far out that they cannot ever be accurately aligned.

https://www.wallyanalog.com/wallyreference-faq

 

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