Well time to spill the beans and tell you what I think of the Ania Pro.
In all honesty I wasn't sure what to expect. I have huge respect for Rega and have owned many of their products, though I've never liked the MM cartridges. This has been largely due to the stylus used since I have an obsessive sensitivity to tracing distortion and IGD (inner groove distortion) and a basic elliptical stylus profile just isn't good enough - I don't care who makes the cartridge or how expensive it might be.
To understand the purchase of the Ania Pro I need to backtrack a few steps.
It was my birthday recently, 55 years old and I'd decided to treat myself to a turntable, one that looked as good as I knew it would sound having had a version of it several years ago - a Black Edition Gyrodec - only the black edition since I think it looks stunning and these days I want my hi-fi to look the part, not just perform well.
Nobody had one in stock, in fact there was an 8-12 week wait but then I spotted a package deal at a dealer - BE Gyro with TecnoArm 2 and Ortofon 2M Black. I hadn't planned on buying the arm and didn't want the cartridge but the dealer wouldn't split, and the price meant the 2M Black was effectively free. So I pulled the trigger.
Got the deck, installed my AT33ptg/2 cartridge and was thoroughly pleased with the results. Just as I remembered it sounding when I ran one with SME IV and Lyra MC - so that relatively inexpensive TecnoArm must be bloody good. It's basically a heavily modified, hot-rodded Rega arm, so how would it perform with a cartridge made specifically for this type of arm. I had a few PM exchanges with Paul Darwin at Rega on stylus tip profiles, then decided to give a Rega MC a try. Enter the Ania Pro.
I set the Pro up as I usually do using my old Ortofon test disc (cover your eyes Tony) and quickly found that it sailed through the tests. Tracked all bands, arm resonance bang on 10Hz, difference tone tests passed, and channel separation off the scale, easily better than the disc can measure at over 35dB and symmetrical.
Firstly a word on HF tracing and IGD, my big fear. I needn't have worried. The Pro uses an Ogura fine line tip and it's clearly a good one. Ogura produce a number of tip variations and this one is clearly excellent. IGD performance is snapping at the heals of the AT33ptg which uses a micro-line profile which I find uniquely able to banish IGD. No 'spitch' on strong sibilance, and no tendency to turn strong high frequency content on the innermost groves into white noise - surprisingly common with more basic stylus profiles.
The balance is on the warm/rich side and quite unlike the AT. I was reminded of using a Supex MC back in the day, or an older Linn MC such as the Troika or Karma.
Placement within the soundstage was startlingly good, with dense musical performances allowed to breathe and performers occupying very clearly defined, stable spaces. This is a technicolour cartridge - as if someone had hit the '3D enhance' button.
Strictly accurate and neutral? - no but sod that, this is a fun sound that just invites you to keep playing. It loves the Michell deck and arm too.
A couple of further points to note.
Output is low. Rega quote 0.35mv but I'm not sure what reference signal is used. Feels more like 0.20mv in use. Compared to the AT33 I needed another 10-15dB of gain on the phono stage, so you will need plenty of quiet gain (I used 70dB).
The stylus guard will scare the living s*it out of you!
There will be a video to follow soon with some audio examples captured at 24/96, specifically highlighting some of the sonic and performance characteristic of the Pro.
I could describe the sound of this or that record, but that's of no use since we don't have the same reference points - better I let you hear it.
Highly recommended if you want a sub £1k MC, and very highly recommended if you own a Rega (or Rega derived) arm.