Top Tier Cartridges, Sleepers and Amazing Values

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
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What are some of your favorite cartridges? I know the arm and the table play a huge role, but for the sake of argument, let's focus on some of your favorite cartridges.

Top Tier for me:
Goldfinger
MC Anna
Lyra Etna
Air Tight PC-1 Supreme
ZYX Universe Premium
Transfiguration Proteus

Amazing Values:
Ortofon A95
Ortofon Cadenza Bronze/Black

Sleepers:
Miyajima Madake
My Sonic Lab Hyper Eminent
My Sonic Lab Eminent
 
Mike said:
What are some of your favorite cartridges? I know the arm and the table play a huge role, but for the sake of argument, let's focus on some of your favorite cartridges.

Top Tier for me:
Goldfinger
MC Anna
Lyra Etna
Air Tight PC-1 Supreme
ZYX Universe Premium
Transfiguration Proteus

Amazing Values:
Ortofon A95
Ortofon Cadenza Bronze/Black

Sleepers:
Miyajima Madake
My Sonic Lab Hyper Eminent
My Sonic Lab Eminent
Click to expand...


No Koetsu Blue Lace or Coralstone? What's the difference between amazing values and sleepers, aren't the sleepers good value?
 
Taking it down a notch (my top tier is someone's bottom start). Based on my experiences...

Top Tier:
Ortofon Cadenza Bronze
Miyajima Zero


Great Value:
Dynavector 20x2H
Ortofon Cadenza Mono
Zu Denon 103
Denon 103R
Stanton 681EEEMKIII with Original OEM Stylus
 
MikeCh said:
Taking it down a notch (my top tier is someone's bottom start). Based on my experiences...

Top Tier:
Ortofon Cadenza Bronze
Miyajima Zero


Great Value:
Dynavector 20x2H
Ortofon Cadenza Mono
Zu Denon 103
Denon 103R
Stanton 681EEEMKIII with Original OEM Stylus
Click to expand...

My Cadenza Bronze shipped today - I'm excited like a little kid :).


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Dynavector XX2 MkII is not too shabby either and also attractive price wise.


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I love the Lyra's. Recently sold my Atlas and miss it. Also have heard the Goldfinger Statement in my system...it's pretty special too. I have 2 friends with Air Tight Supremes...that's another good one !

Tried to post a image of my Allaerts MC 2 Finish (not to shabby)...but I need 10 posts
 

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Now I am somebody. Post #11 :-)

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Btw, I should have noted that I currently run the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze in an Origin Live Enterprise-C arm on a Nottingham Dais table, and it sounds quite exceptional.
 
Kuoppis said:
My Cadenza Bronze shipped today - I'm excited like a little kid :).
Click to expand...


As you should be, congrats! It's a fantastic phono cartridge and its popularity is for good reason.

Please share your thoughts when you get some listening time with it.
 
To be honest, apart from listening to other people's carts, I don't have experience with cartridges outside of the Clearaudio premium range.. Talisman and upwards. The reason being is that I own a McInotsh MT10 and those Clearaudio carts are best suited for it because of what the MT10 is. The McIntosh MT10 is an excellent table built by Clearaudio, nothing more.

Any Clearaudio cartridge from Stradivari upwards is a great match for the MT10. The sweet spot in that category would be the DaVinci V2.

The thing is, once you have been poisoned by a Goldfinger Statement you cannot go back. The price today for a Goldfinger is scary. I would consider the DaVinci V2 to be one of those great sleepers.

(Don't ask me to write about measurements! --- That said if you do buy a one of these carts, you will get an individual performance report with a graph.)

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MikeCh said:
As you should be, congrats! It's a fantastic phono cartridge and its popularity is for good reason.

Please share your thoughts when you get some listening time with it.
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

The Cadenza Bronze still needs to be broken in, but I must say I'm impressed.

I tried before a Clearaudio Virtuoso MM cartridge and the Clearaudio Performance DC, but with those the fun just would not emerge.

Now, with Cadenza Bronze and Vpi Prime, a totally different story.

Cheers,
Kuoppis


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I really like my Cadenza Bronze in my system. I like it more than I like my soundsmith,"the Voice". I like both of those more than my clearaudio Virtuoso, but it is really good too, especially playing jazz.
 
One cartridge I would add to the "Amazing Value" Category the the Kiseki Purple Heart.
I have been listening to one for the past couple of weeks. It is definitely an over achiever in its price range ($3,500.00).

One cartridge on the list that I would love to try is the Lyra Etna. I have an older Titan that I really enjoy. It would be great to see what the Etna brings to the table over the Titan.
 
Kuoppis said:
Hi Mike,

The Cadenza Bronze still needs to be broken in, but I must say I'm impressed.

I tried before a Clearaudio Virtuoso MM cartridge and the Clearaudio Performance DC, but with those the fun just would not emerge.

Now, with Cadenza Bronze and Vpi Prime, a totally different story.

Cheers,
Kuoppis


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

That is great news Kuoppis! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do mine.


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The Ortofon Cadenza Bronze is VERY popular here.

I knew some AS members owned the Cadenza Bronze, but in just the 2 pages of postings so far in this thread there are more than I figured there would be!
 
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