My new Ortofon Cadenza Blue moving coil phono cartridge arrived today from Ivan, AA's friendly Ortofon dealer. I have been anxiously waiting for it because I sold my Ortofon 2M Black moving magnet cartridge, so the Micro Seiki DD-40 turntable was without a phono cartridge and feeling abandoned.
Naturally, one thing leads to another. Before I started mounting the Cadenza Blue I had to pull my McIntosh C2300 preamplifier out of the rack, remove its top cover and swap the Gold Lion 12AX7 tubes from the moving magnet phono stage to the moving coil phono stage and relocate the McIntosh stock 12AX7's to the moving magnet tube sockets where they will not be used. I left the Telefunken 12AX7's in the line stage. After reinstalling the top cover on the C2300, I placed the preamp back on its Rollerblock Jr.'s and slid it back in the Salamander rack. After reconnecting all the interconnects, power control and data cables, and the power cord I was ready to start on the turntable.
Setting up the Ortofon Cadenza Blue was straight ahead, with the only complication being the screws supplied with the new cartridge were not long enough to use with the m505A tonearm's headshell. Fortunately I have several other headshells and selected an aluminum one that worked with the screws supplied. What this means is I will have to set the cartridge and tonearm up again once I find and purchase the longer cartridge mounting screws to use with the m505A headshell.
I mounted the cartridge, set the overhang and axis alignment, vertical tracking angle and tracking force, then using the Fozgometer and a test album I dialed in the Cadenza Blue's azimuth perfectly. After double checking to ensure the tracking force was still 2.5 grams and adjusting the C2300's moving coil loading to 100 ohms as a starting point I was good to go. Between the tube swapping in the C2300, the phono cartridge mounting, and a complete tonearm setup, three hours had passed very quickly.
The first album under the new stylus was Linda Ronstadt -
Get Closer. First impressions....Holy Cow, this moving coil cartridge sounds great right out of the box with no time on it. On the duet with James Taylor "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine" both voices were clearly defined, the drums and bass had plenty of weight and dynamic strength, and there was an abundance of texture and detail in both voices and instruments. Linda's voice on "Easy For You To Say" was so fluid and clear I was mesmerized. I moved on to Spyro Gyra, ZZ Top, Bob James, and Marty Robbins, all exceptionally pleasing. Along the way I played with the cartridge loading. I tried 50 ohms, 100 ohms, 200 ohms, and 500 ohms, ultimately settling on 200 ohms as sounding the best at this time with no break-in on the Cadenza Blue. This may or may not be the ideal setting as the cartridge break-in progresses, but for now with the brand new cartridge this setting sounds extremely impressive.
This is the first time I have had a moving coil phono cartridge on my Micro Seiki DD-40 turntable and m505A tonearm. Let me add some perspective to that comment. I bought the DD-40 new in 1979. During its 34 years of service to me the sound has been wonderful with no less than five different moving magnet cartridges, but none of them measures up to what I am hearing now with the DD-40's very first moving coil phono cartridge mounted on its tonearm. This is also the first time I have used the moving coil phono preamp on this C2300. The Ortofon Cadenza Blue output voltage is 500 microvolts, so it is playing louder at a lower volume setting than does my Ortofon Cadenza Black on the Michell Gyro SE/SME309 turntable in the studio system which has an output voltage of 350 microvolts. This is working out very well with the tube based moving coil phono stage in the C2300. At a volume setting of 50 on the preamp I have substantial volume in the living room and not a hint of tube grid rushing noise. The Gold Lion 12AX7's are quiet and sound very good in the moving coil phono stage. I am rightfully impressed with the McIntosh C2300's moving coil phono stage performance.
What has me even more impressed is how the Ortofon Cadenza Blue sounds, especially with only a few hours of play time. The Ruby cantilever is so thin you have to focus sharply to see it. The beautiful ruby red cantilever is a jewel, literally. Under magnification the white diamond stylus mounted on the tip of the ruby cantilever presents a gorgeous contrast and is quite a site to behold. I couldn't be happier with this new moving coil cartridge. If it sounds this good right out of the box, I am positive it will bring the house down once it has 100 hours or more on it. The Ortofon Cadenza Blue is a keeper for sure.