There is a thread on audiogon that really caught my attention - and jazdoc you may want to elaborate... But boy, does it really portray how and black and white we audiophiles hear and perceive things... But in the end, is it really different than, say, perception of visual art, or other material things that appeal to us???
Emphases are mine
Emphases are mine
Jazdoc,Albert, I'll take the bait...I don't own an A90, so no dog in this (impending) fight. I have heard it in numerous systems, and while not my absolute favorite cartridge, I still consider it excellent. Is this simply a matter of taste or does it do something that truly bothers you?The Ortofon A90 does not do anything "wrong" in the sense of distortion, mistrack or anything like that. It's just a soul less, bland, flat and uninvolving cartridge without much dynamic contrast and lacking low bass output.
In one test here it was on a $7000.00 German made tonearm and with half a dozen listeners in the room we alternated between that and a SME 312S fitted with a Shure V15Vxmr.
All but one person preferred the Shure and it's a $300.00 moving magnet design. Actually the sound of the two are in many ways similar, it would be interesting if others did the test and reported back. We did this test a year or two back and everyone involved sold off their Ortofon.
There was a couple of cartridges that were worse, the ZYX Omega and Universe.
These test does not conclude that you would agree, it's just my and my group finding and an honest response. Likely I (we) have different taste than what others might be looking for.