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ortofon cadenza black

karma67

karma67

pfm Member
i have recently gone from a 2m black to a decca C4E re-tipped by john wright,boy did it not disappoint,i was very happy with this until a cadenza black appeared in my hands.

well i had a day of setting it up and a long listening session.
im very happy with this cartridge,its very neutral,i was warned, "dont expect a cart that throws in your face ballsy excitement at you - it doesn't impose itself" that was right on the money. in fact coming from a decca it was most alarming at first,paranoia was telling me something is wrong here!
this was swept away with the increased detail the black was serving up,its a feast for the ears lol,
with only 20hrs on it hopefully there is more to come!

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the decca is a fantastic sounding cartridge,it has drive and punch,the black is a calmer beast with grace and elegance,to use a boxing analogy you could say the decca is mike tyson,the black is muhammad ali :)

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to my ears whats special about the black is it just disappears and lets you enjoy the music,with most of the cartridges ive owned there was always some weakness that showed up,not with this one although it has got me thinking about SUT so just as one money pit has been filled in......

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Must have been some juggling act to do the VTA on a black (hard enough anyway since it tracks so close to the record surface) and get all that working with the trough on the Rock, although I see from two pics that you're not using the trough. What happened there?
 
very easy in fact,i use a small aluminum block and feeler gauges between the tonearm mounting collar and arm rest bracket,i do all the adjustments without the trough and when happy add the trough,the pics are taken during this hence the trough appearing and disappearing :)
 
hi,just got cadenza black myself its on a acoustic signature challenger,and ol conqurer,sounds amazing,its now done 30 hours but been told it needs about 100,from a former owner,
 
kondo said:
hi,just got cadenza black myself its on a acoustic signature challenger,and ol conqurer,sounds amazing,its now done 30 hours but been told it needs about 100,from a former owner,
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Yes, and l am missing it already.
 
kondo said:
hi,it will come again,how's the hana/project doing for you regards charlie
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Hi Charlie, going really well- very smooth, full and very musical indeed- the Project reminds me a lot of my friend's EAR834P phono stage which is a tubed unit, the Hana is not as exiting as my Caddy Black tracks brilliantly..... for the money it is quite superb as is the Project.:)

Cannot help but think the Caddy Black/Project combo would have sounded.
 
hi,i had the ear 834p about ten years ago,sold it but also missed it,first time I heard what tonal colour was went to a sonneteer sedly,i didn't think you would be getting best out your black with dino,good stage for the money ,anyway project seems to be a good one so im pleased for you,charlie,ps did you try the sme5
 
The Bla
kondo said:
hi,i had the ear 834p about ten years ago,sold it but also missed it,first time I heard what tonal colour was went to a sonneteer sedly,i didn't think you would be getting best out your black with dino,good stage for the money ,anyway project seems to be a good one so im pleased for you,charlie,ps did you try the sme5
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The Black went into a Jez Arkless Turbo............ did not like the Black/Dino combo at all.
 
Interesting!

I have a kontrapunkt b on my Rock, and very good it is indeed, but I don't actually regard it as my best TT.

That honour goes to my Orbe with a graham 2.2 and an esco'd mc20.

Didn't like the kontra b on that so much - bit to much bass.

What PS does that Rock have? (mine has a Lingo 2, yes I know....)

Always wondered if the Cadenza black could possibly be worth the money but it seems like you've actually made a huge jump missing out a few natural steps.

I like your HR100s, always thought I wanted one but my Rock is limited to a j7 tweaked rb250.

A good friend of mine has a Rock/Merlin with a Xenon + MC30 and it isn't clearly better than mine.
 
Having broken out of the c 3K cart world in my weird Linn period I alighted on the Cadenza Blue, which IMHO improved on the much more expensive AKIVA. While I'm sure the Black is a bit better the Blue is so good I just don't feel the need to upgrade. So if any readers are stumped for budget listen to that.

Mine also goes into a Jez Arkless Turbo (plus)
 
MVV said:
Having broken out of the c 3K cart world in my weird Linn period I alighted on the Cadenza Blue, which IMHO improved on the much more expensive AKIVA. While I'm sure the Black is a bit better the Blue is so good I just don't feel the need to upgrade. So if any readers are stumped for budget listen to that.

Mine also goes into a Jez Arkless Turbo (plus)
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Your findings largely mirror mine, I’d say the blue offers the best balance in terms of price vs performance. It’s a fantastic cartridge. I managed to get a practically unused black from a trusted friend for an insanely low price and it is better, it’s probably the best cartridge I’ve ever heard... I’m just not sure it’s £600 better, the blue is very close.
 
MVV said:
Having broken out of the c 3K cart world in my weird Linn period I alighted on the Cadenza Blue, which IMHO improved on the much more expensive AKIVA. While I'm sure the Black is a bit better the Blue is so good I just don't feel the need to upgrade. So if any readers are stumped for budget listen to that.

Mine also goes into a Jez Arkless Turbo (plus)
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Just out of interest MVV, was the JA Turbo a much better than the standard Turbo?
 
Tarzan said:
Just out of interest MVV, was the JA Turbo a much better than the standard Turbo?
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I'm not a good person to ask this type of question of because after a relatively low benchmark I find diminishing returns kick in massively; hence my comments about the Cadenza Blue. I suspect moving the speakers a few inches, moving furniture about or getting a slightly less worn pressing will make a bigger difference than a Black does over a Blue. I never heard the standard Arkless side by side the Turbo plus so all I can say for sure is it wasn't any worse.
 
I stopped offering the Turbo and Turbo + simply because I didn't think they offered more than Nth degree improvement over the standard version, in spite of the extra costs in parts and labour justifying the price differential. The standard version now has MM/MC switching as standard and is currently £225. They still represent excellent VFM, have little to rival them at anywhere near the cost and I still sell the odd few... two in the last 6 weeks or so to people from pfm buying them blind.

I have a revolutionary new model at about £1200 ish coming out soon which I invite comparison with any phono stage at any price. See "Trade discussion" area. It uses the transconductance amplifier principle which, with the demise of "The Paradise" and long time non availability of the PT "PIp", it may well be the only such phono stage on the market. This model is MC only.

A hybrid phono stage will hopefully also be available, in MC version and MM versions, some time next year. It is very often a real compromise to make a phono stage switchable from MM to MC (many/most stages are compromised in this way). The Arkless 640P by and large avoids the issue, as do some others, but they are in a minority. Once going for high end excellence it can be said that making them switchable is generally a compromise;)
 
hi,the arm is more important than the colour of cart,ol conqurer with at33ptg is better than cadenza black rb250/jelco750,that's my findings,regards charlie
 
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