Ortofon A90

I've heard the A90 in three different systems (including mine), with multiple tonearms on various belt and direct drive turntables. In any setting, it sounds terrific and is defnitely a contender for 'world's best cartridge'. Sadly no longer manufactured.

Only 400 were ever made

I've heard this cart. in 4 or 5 systems and I think it's one of the best, if not THE best out there.

I'm not a very technical person and do not have any inputs on the tracking angle.

I bought this cartridge over a year ago and is currently installed in my set up. Out of the box, this cartridge sounds very clear. It was very transparent revealing details, allowing me to hear into the music, and seems to do everything correctly with no perceptive colors, quite pleasant sounding. However, extended listening turned out to be uninteresting, uninvolving. Switching to different cartridges revealed to me that it was bland, as if there was a lack of liveliness or enthusiasm from the musicians.

If not for the wonderful tools that were included with the cartridge, I would have given up on this cartridge. Wishing to confirm my resutlts, I decided to lend it to another hobbyist here who was seriously considering acquiring an A 90 himself. Initially, he was quite enthusiastic about the sound and like myself, found nothing to nitpick about. However, after one week, he gave me the same comments that it lacked the liveliness in its reproduction of music. I then suggested that he experiment with tracking force to the point of disregarding the range recommended by the manufacturer. He got back to me one week later and told me that in his set up, the best sound was at a tracking force of 1.8 grams. This was exactly my own conclusion in my set up, but in long term listening, he still found it wanting as it was uninvolving.

When the cartridge was returned to me, I installed it in my set up at 1.8 grams tracking force and invited a neighbor whom we fondly call MT (for master tweaker) to adjust the tonearm and cartridge. We compared several lps between the A 90 and the Koetsu Urushi which was set up in my other turntable. In every cut we played, the Koetsu sounded much more alive than the A 90. The A 90 just could not project a semblance of the energy of a live performance into the listening area. At the end of the day, I offered to lend MT, who was by then intrigued on how to unlock the musical life of the A 90, to bring it home with him and experiment with it in his own system.

It took MT a few weeks of tweaking before he invited me to his place to hear the A 90. The liveliness that was missing was now found. MT had a second turntable system set up so that we can compare the sound of each cut played on the A 90 with a benchmark. At the end of the evening, I happily brought home my A 90 with the advise to track it at 1.6 grams and to set it up with the tonearm's rear end should be higher than the headshell end when the A 90 is riding the grooves.

I currently have the A 90 set at 1.5 grams tracking force with the tonearm's rear end higher than the headshell end. My impressions are that the soundstage is brightly lit, the musicians are solidly planted in their positions on the stage, lots of details to the point that there seems to be an aura of energy around each musician, clear vocals with excellent differentiation of vocal signatures of singers, and with excellent soundstage height.

I love the cartridge. Had to play with the impedance in my ASR phono to dial it in right but it was worth the effort. Best I've had in my system. Fremer's review was spot on. It doesn't embellish at all. It simply gets out of the way of the music.

I have it. My impressions are exactly the same as Mullard's. Very clear, very uncolored. A cartridge I respect highly but I've only really connected with on one occasion and that is when I was given free reign to twiddle with the adjustments on Jim's EMT JPA-66. This corroborate's lasercd's impressions that the cart is sensitive to loading. IIRC Jim's table was set up by MT as well so he should have similar VTF and VTA as Mullard. Currently mine is in its box as I have been enjoying the XV-1t -loaned DV PHA-100 - Lamm LP2 combination.

Knut Cornils of Valvet is building me a phono amplifier with 3 MC inputs with individual silver wound step up transformers (MC1 1:10, MC2 1:20, MC3 1:20) and an MM input for the MYSonic or Koetsu outboard SUTs. I'm also set to install a third arm to join my Phantom and Phantom II, It's the TW arm. The A90 will likely find its way onto one of the Grahams. The additional TFK 803s for the Valvet Soulphono ordered from Jadis should arrive around the same time. I think with approximately 65dB of gain the combination should be dynamic. I'll report in again sometime near the end of July.

Hi Ack,

Like the XV-1t the XV-1s is very flattering with strings. The XV-1 family does "space" extremely well and fill up the top front corners better than any other cart I own. It definitely has good transient snap so they are pretty fast. The niggle is that they are on the low side in terms of output at around .23mV. With a Phono pre with low gain some find them bass shy especially when upper mids tend to draw attention. I think this is a reason behind HP suggesting VTF far higher than the recommended range. I tried it but frankly, I felt the added oomph came at the expense of nuance and fluidity. I owned a Strad V1 and traded up to a Titanium V1. These carts could boogie but the first generation was, shall I say, very teutonic. I had very little success in taming these carts with my then HRX's acrylic platter but found acceptable results with the delrin-aluminum sandwich super platter. The top heavy CAs with their long cantilevers are very sensitive to azimuth and getting this right takes them to a whole new level. I've been told that the V2s are now fuller and warmer sounding. The high output makes for pretty good punch. Since we're talking dynamic contrasts, I would suggest giving the ZYX Airy 3 S a whirl. The copper can be a bit harsh and the gold too laid back, to my ears the silver strikes the perfect balance. The stage isn't very big but what it loses in scale it makes up for in solidity. Quite strange that they named it Airy when they should have named it Solid.

HTH

Jack

If you like the XX-2 I'm pretty confident you will like the XV-1s.

I would agree with Jack's assessment of the XV1-s. In my system, VTF of 1.82-1.83 gms works best with the Durand Talea tonearm and 1.87-1.88 gms works best with the Triplanar arm. One other observation: more than any other cartridge I've experienced, the XV1-s demands precise set-up. Close will get you excellent sound, but there is exponentially better fidelity with a "nuts on" set up. By comparison, the Clearaudio, Benz and A90 are much more forgiving of set-up imperfections. In any case, given the level of analogue investment, its worth pruchasing good set up tools like the MintLP protractor.

i have owned 2 A90's for the last 18 months, serial numbers #8 and #79. i just sold my Rockport turntable and as part of the trade-ins i accepted 2 additional A90's still sealed in the outer shipping boxes. so you could say that i'm knee deep in A90's.......which is a good thing because overall it is the best sounding cartridge i have heard. (yes, i'll be selling the two unopenned ones).

the A90 is unique in that it is absent any of the 'deal killer' characteristics of either being too edgy or too warm so it's quite neutral; yet in my experience it does not have a performance limitiation i have found. it's natural and behaved yet explosive and detailed.

i've watched the A90 being used for tonearm development by Joel Durand for the last year or so, and have witnessed many dozens of set-ups by him with the A90 and it always delivers the goods. what's funny is how initially it seemed to like 1.60 grams to 1.80 grams, but over time it seems happy anywhere from 1.8 to 2.3 grams. it's the most forgiving cartridge in terms of VTF.

there has never been a cartridge built to the technical standards of the A90, so there is a quality and consistency to individual examples.

Mike Lavigne,

Thanks for that bit of information contained in your post # 14 third paragraph. I hope to remember it long enough to try it as my A 90 ages.

Ack,

Wish you all the best in unraveling the mysteries of the A 90.