Anyone ever bought an Ortofon high end m/c new?

[oceanobsession]

Not me, and after speaking to the guy at expert stylus i never will,he said to me
that even the most expensive cartridges only cost £300 in materials, you look
at the ortofon rohmann you dont even get a boron cantilever £1100.00 pounds rip off,you are better off getting an expensive cartridge retiped by
expert stylus.

 

[sm1907]

Materials are not always a guarantee of performance. I have a boron cantilevered AT OC9 III that the aluminium cantilevered Rhomann left for dead (at low to medium volume!)

I only paid £150 for the Rhomann which still has 300 hours or so left in the stylus. EMC quoted £260 all in to service/retip making it about £400 for a 'new' equivalent - as you say much better value than buying new, but as it would still have had the same low output I sold it on to a member who has a suitable phono stage for it.

 

[sm1907]

Doesn't the Kontrplunkt have 3 ridges - one at the front and two at the back that form a 3 point contact with the headshell?

 

[sm1907]

Almost went for a Rhondo Bronze but couldn't justify the extra cost (even with 20% discount) over a new KP A (£399). Delivered from Germany in 2 working days - Easy fit in Ekos and simple azimuth and easy alignment/VTA set up - running in but still wonderful.

 

[Lefty]

Yup - £399 is a bit of a steal for the Kontrapunkt A. I am really enjoying mine

Lefty

 

[James]

Not me, and after speaking to the guy at expert stylus i never will,he said to me
that even the most expensive cartridges only cost £300 in materials, you look
at the ortofon rohmann you dont even get a boron cantilever £1100.00 pounds rip off,you are better off getting an expensive cartridge retiped by
expert stylus.

I'd like to see you build a cartridge for £300. Heck, I'd even pay you for the privilege, but you must guarantee it better than my Lyra. There is clearly no value in design, testing, production overheads or profit, is there?

 

[colasblue]

The one thing I didn't like about my B was the raised line at the front on the mounting surface for azimuth adjustment. Mine doesn't have it anymore.

Have you got your cartridge yet Colas?

Yes its here.

Initial impressions are very good on the Orbe/Graham but I've had to reduce the loading on the mc boards to get the best of it. 50 ohms is right.

Overall the sound is quite a lot "darker" than the Lp12/ekos/troika but this may be in part due to me using the standard zetex transistors on the orbe's phono boards, which I don't on the Linn's

Until i've got the same transistors and caps on each phonostage I don't think its fair to be definitive in comparisons, but cetainly the orbe is allowing me to enjoy most records, particularly those which were formerly very bright on the Linn. There are however some losers, which sound too dull.

Hopefully a transistor upgrade may reveal a very acceptable middle ground.

the ridge is still on mine but I agree its useless, particularly as the graham has adjustable azimuth. Then again "linn tight" is not a requirement for that arm.

 

[Bemused]

I have had a new B and C over the years, not a lot in the box, infact not a lot of box for the money. Seem to remeber just a little stubby screw driver and fixing hardware.

 

[colasblue]

I did a bit better than that - there is a little brush and a set of headshell leads.

I thought it was quite a good box. I already had a box like it which has sent my troika to and fro for rebuilds a couple of times.

 

[ellamoo]

I've had 3 Kontrapunkt B's - wouldn't use anything else now - be aware the sound gets better from new with burning in - though there are those that may feel there is no such thing

 

[johnfromnorwich]

I'm looking at replacements for my DL304. It's been used pretty hard and in my system is a little lean. £399 looks pretty attractive for the Ortofon but I'm wondering about compliance in an SME IV. Maybe a little on the low side?

 

[Bemused]

I did a bit better than that - there is a little brush and a set of headshell leads.

I thought it was quite a good box. I already had a box like it which has sent my troika to and fro for rebuilds a couple of times.

Its quite a while ago and my memory fades, the box was robust but plastic not the nice high end wooden boxs you see. But its contents not packaging that were buying.

I dont use brushs since I blaged one of the old audiotecnic ultrasonic cleaners and that little gloopy box of onzo, both great for stylus cleaning, had mine for many years now and love my C, used to love my B but hergoodself cleaned the end away whilst dusting one day, thats how I came to upgrade to the C.

Hope you have a good long relationship with your Kontrapunkt. Just dont let your wife dust around it

 

[sm1907]

Now I've set up the 'A' and matched the pre-amps input impedance I think 'Ortofon tight' is just fine in the AOEkos. It's definitely not 'Linn tight' as I left the ridge in place to enable azimuth adjustment since the Ekos has no way to adjust it (now I wonder if azimuth errors contributed to the frequent poor performance (in my experience) of non-Linn carts. in A/B comparisons using Linn arms, since the Linn carts. were designed to sit optimally when 'Linn tight' in the headshell?)