new cartridge; Ortofon Anna, first impressions

[Mike Lavigne]

Have A90 in my stable - great cart but not as good as ZYX Sigma 2/Univers and top line VDH Colibry XPW - wounder if Annacan eclipse them?

hello LCat,

i have had a different experience than you have with your A90. in the past i've owned 7 Colibri's, 5 different XCP's (copper windings, polycarbonite body), one XGW (gold windings, wood body), one XPP (Platinum body, polycarbonite body). the Colibri's were wonderful sometimes, but also edgy and hashy sometimes. the build quality was all over the place.

i also had a 'Silver' ZYX Universe in my system for a short time.

i prefer the A90 (and i owned 3 of them) to any of the Colibri's or the Universe. a local friend also had a Universe and preferred his A90. i thought the A90 was more solid with similar attributes to the Colibri's but also always natural sounding, and the Universe never quite sounded alive and open and had a bit of artificial sheen on the music (plastic body?).

understand i'm not criticizing either the Colibri's or the Universe but only contrasting them with my perception of the A90. these are all wonderful cartridges.

i now have the Ortofon Anna, which is the best cartridge i have ever had by more than a little. as good as i loved the A90, the Anna does everything a little better, and some things quite a bit better. i also owned a Lyra Olympos SL when i had the A90's and i really liked the sweetness of the Olympos....although the A90's were a little better in terms of top to bottom energy and detail. the Anna has that sweetness of the Olympos, but more body too, and more energy than the A90.

the Anna sounds like music and with so much energy and really connects you to the musical experience.

 

[MylesBAstor]

hello LCat,

i have had a different experience than you have with your A90. in the past i've owned 7 Colibri's, 5 different XCP's (copper windings, polycarbonite body), one XGW (gold windings, wood body), one XPP (Platinum body, polycarbonite body). the Colibri's were wonderful sometimes, but also edgy and hashy sometimes. the build quality was all over the place.

i also had a 'Silver' ZYX Universe in my system for a short time.

i prefer the A90 (and i owned 3 of them) to any of the Colibri's or the Universe. a local friend also had a Universe and preferred his A90. i thought the A90 was more solid with similar attributes to the Colibri's but also always natural sounding, and the Universe never quite sounded alive and open and had a bit of artificial sheen on the music (plastic body?).

understand i'm not criticizing either the Colibri's or the Universe but only contrasting them with my perception of the A90. these are all wonderful cartridges.

i now have the Ortofon Anna, which is the best cartridge i have ever had by more than a little. as good as i loved the A90, the Anna does everything a little better, and some things quite a bit better. i also owned a Lyra Olympos SL when i had the A90's and i really liked the sweetness of the Olympos....although the A90's were a little better in terms of top to bottom energy and detail. the Anna has that sweetness of the Olympos, but more body too, and more energy than the A90.

the Anna sounds like music and with so much energy and really connects you to the musical experience.

Might I suggest the "sheen" of the ZYX Universe Ag was the wire, not the body. I've had the Omega Au and Cu and they don't have a sheen at all. They are my third favorite cartridge and now that the price has come down with Mehran doing the importing, one of the better cartridges in their price range. I find the ZYX Omega series just have an ability to musically engage the listener that eludes similar beasts.

The Anna, Atlas, Goldfinger, AT Supreme are in a totally different price range too

 

[LCat]

Might I suggest the "sheen" of the ZYX Universe Ag was the wire, not the body. I've had the Omega Au and Cu and they don't have a sheen at all. They are my third favorite cartridge and now that the price has come down with Mehran doing the importing, one of the better cartridges in their price range. I find the ZYX Omega series just have an ability to musically engage the listener that eludes similar beasts.

The Anna, Atlas, Goldfinger, AT Supreme are in a totally different price range too

I have to agree with Myles here - Zyx Universe is best in Cu(Copper).Also to get best out of it you need to have a silver base.

I have Omega as well and Universe is several steps ahead of it.

Now Sigma Diamond II is whole different animal - this cartrige gets downright scarry. Loyd Walker who hated Omega on my Black Diamond though what this cartige might be the "Holy Grail". Sigmas mantra is speed, detail, dynamics and then tons more speed.

VDH Collibry in question is Platinum Coils Wood body. I had a Polycarbon body with gold- not in the same league and probably not as good as MC90.

I really like MC90 but currently onBlack Diamond it comes #4 from my collection of 9 top line cartriges

Have not tried Anna or Atlas, Loyd has AT PC-1 Supreme and my Goldfinger should arrive shortly

 

[Mr Bojangles]

we (Jazdoc and myself) do both have Durand Telos tonearms.

12 inchers.

Hello

I am not familiar with Telos arms but followed Mike L's thread regarding his Anna with interest. I have a question regarding the single screw cartridge-to-arm coupling method this arm uses. It looks very neat and all but do you think single screw coupling of a cartridge to tonearm is secure enough to have no adverse effect of cartridge energy dispersal into and up along the 12" length of this arm?

Maybe this is a dumb question but I have also over time read various 'wisdoms' resulting from the use of accelerometers on tonearm testing methodology presented to their readers by a certain UK audio rag.

Mounting a cartridge with a single screw seems an elegant solution and would make setup a breeze, I would imagine.

Mr Bojangles

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Hello

I am not familiar with Telos arms but followed Mike L's thread regarding his Anna with interest. I have a question regarding the single screw cartridge-to-arm coupling method this arm uses. It looks very neat and all but do you think single screw coupling of a cartridge to tonearm is secure enough to have no adverse effect of cartridge energy dispersal into and up along the 12" length of this arm?

Maybe this is a dumb question but I have also over time read various 'wisdoms' resulting from the use of accelerometers on tonearm testing methodology presented to their readers by a certain UK audio rag.

Mounting a cartridge with a single screw seems an elegant solution and would make setup a breeze, I would imagine.

Mr Bojangles

i have no personal knowledge that would shed any light on the design of the single crew coupling for the tonearm/cartridge interface plate. i know that many different approaches were considered and tried by Joel and he choose the single screw approach. you could email Joel and ask him about it; but it's possible the answer might be considered 'propriatary' and that he would not decide to share it.

whether becuase of, or in spite of, the single screw approach....the Telos is easily the best sounding tonearm i have heard. and it's most significant attribute is the absense of distortion. if there were a weakness in the single screw approach it would likely result in less precision and more distortion.

i have observed many mount-dismount cycles on Joel's tonearms in my room and that single screw does make it quick and precise. all the messing around with trying to tighten one cartridge screw and making sure the other screw stays tight and the cartridge stays in alignment is eliminated. the cartridge screws stay tightly connected to the mounting plate (those screws are countersunk into that plate), and the single screw allows for precise positioning of that mounting plate. that single screw into the mounting plate appears to be designed so that it does not move as it is being tightened.

 

[Mr Bojangles]

Hello Mike

Thanks for replying to my question. I didn't want to edit my post above but perhaps I should have added that I cannot recall if the mentioned UK audio magazine ever applied accelerometer testing to arms with single-point cartridge mounting, nor have I ever read anything adverse about this type of cartridge mount. There are of course other arms using the same mount system such as the quaintly named "Satisfy" from Clearaudio.

Regards and enjoy the new arrival.

Mr Bojangles

 

[jackelsson]

Hi,

I thought I dig out this old thread for my very first post in this forum. I just wanted to share a few pics from my new MC Anna which arrived two days ago. Obviously it is still far from being broken in and I'm also still fiddeling around with the fine tuning. Still, it's already quite amazing what this thing does. Quite a step up from a (my) Ortofon Cadenza Black, Lyra Skala, Benz LP-S and vdH Condor.