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Nagaoka MP500 and tonearm matching

Seanm

Seanm

pfm Member
I'm committed to this cartridge but a bit lost on the tonearm front. I'm considering one of 13-14g effective mass - anyone have experience with this kind of combination?
 
That’s fine. The Nags are medium compliance, not high like a lot of the Ortofons, ATs etc, so it should be happy enough. I’m using mine in a late-60s 3009 (i.e. pre-Improved), which is 12.5g IIRC, and it sails through anything.
 
Tony L said:
The Nags are medium compliance, not high like a lot of the Ortofons, ATs etc
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Didn't know that; useful stuff as I have 2 x 14g-ish arms and am tempted to try a Nag. (though what it'll bring over my VMS20E/ll I have no clue).
 
Mike Reed said:
Didn't know that; useful stuff as I have 2 x 14g-ish arms and am tempted to try a Nag. (though what it'll bring over my VMS20E/ll I have no clue).
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Far better tracking over warps! The VMS20E is very high compliance so I’d expect it to get close to belly-flopping on some sharper warps in a 14g arm!

It is quite hard to establish what compliance the Nag actually is as specs seem to vary depending on what you read, plus there is that thing of Japanese companies calculating it differently to European brands. As such I don’t know for sure what it is, but as I say it seems happy in the medium mass 3009 with none of the signs of it being too compliant. I’d be very surprised if you had any issue.
 
I would love to try a nag but this puts me off read this from there website.

The stylus replacement interval varies depending on the using conditions. But for general use at home, the reference time is between 150-200 hours in which the stylus begin to wear and the tone quality deteriorates. Recommend replacing the stylus as aerly as possible to enjoy clear tone for a long time and not to damge the disc grooves.
 
I’ve seen that too, but it has to be an insane definition of wear! I’ll certainly be running mine for the couple of thousand hours one would expect any high quality micro-line diamond tip to last (they tend to last longer than elliptical tips as the contact area is larger).

I’ve certainly read no indication from users that Nags wear any faster than any other carts, many folk still seem to be happily running the previous MP-xx generation which implies very long life. IIRC Nagaoka also make tips and generators for a lot of other brands, so again their definition of wear must either be the most OCD microscopic signs of evidence or a misprint!
 
Why not the Audionote Arm One (II) that you already have? I thought it was really good with the Nagaoka.
 
The European distributor of Nagaoka, Tonar International bv, lists dynamic compliance of 8.5 x 10-6cm/dyne (aka 'cu' or 'compliance units' where 1cu = 1 millionth of a centimetre) for MP-500. If we are to assume that the reference frequency is the typical for Japan 100Hz then we double the stated compliance value for a 10Hz reference.

Therefore, consider the formula for calculating the resonant frequency (Fr) of an arm/cartridge combo:

Fr = 1000/(2π x sqrt(M x C))

Where:
Fr = resonant frequency (in Hz)
M = sum of all mass (tonearm effective mass (including headshell), cartridge weight, plus mounting hardware in g)
C = compliance (at 10Hz)

Example:
Tony's SME with an effective mass of 12.5g and his MP-500 cartridge weighting 8g, with a stated compliance of 8.5 x 10-6cm/dyne (presumably at 100Hz, therefore transformed from 100Hz to 10Hz by doubling the value of 8.5 to 17):

Sum the different masses: 12.5g (tonearm) + 8g (cartridge) + 2.5g (mounting hardware) = 23g.

Then we multiply mass x compliance (the latter @ 10Hz) 23 x 17 = 391.

sqrt of 391 = 19.77

2π x 19.77 = 6.28 x 19.77 = 124.22

1000/124.22 = 8.05Hz, fitting within the desirable 7 - 12Hz range.

Craig
 
Seanm said:
It has a lot going for it but not the sweetness of the Nima - which in turn doesn't have the definition of the Audionote.

Stupid hobby.
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Yeah, I agree; there is always going to be that kind of choice and it's partly a gimbal vs unipivot thing ( I had a similar dichotomy with the AN vs Notts). But I think if you consider the yin/yang balance with the cart then it matches well with the Nagaoka. The Nag gives more richness and roundness to the lean and tight character of the AN Arm.
 
Elephantears said:
Yeah, I agree; there is always going to be that kind of choice and it's partly a gimbal vs unipivot thing ( I had a similar dichotomy with the AN vs Notts). But I think if you consider the yin/yang balance with the cart then it matches well with the Nagaoka. The Nag gives more richness and roundness to the lean and tight character of the AN Arm.
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Yes, the yin/yang thing works as you say. Was surprised, though, that yang/yang (yin/yin?) works too, and in a way I think I prefer overall: the Nima and the Nag seem to play to each other's strengths. Suspect I'm a uni man.
 
Sean, the Audionote arm responds well to not having the main nut not too tight and the counterweight just nipped, worth a try.
 
Neiro said:
Sean, the Audionote arm responds well to not having the main nut not too tight and the counterweight just nipped, worth a try.
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Had been thinking how much it seems to have improved recently, and on returning the arm to its clip found that the nut had worked itself loose. Funny things, record players.
 
I run my Nag-500 on a Audiomods Classic. Sounds very nice in my system. It reminds me of a really refined Stanton 681eee.
 
Seanm said:
Had been thinking how much it seems to have improved recently, and on returning the arm to its clip found that the nut had worked itself loose. Funny things, record players.
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Are you referring to the Audionote Arm V2?
 
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