Michell Gyro SE / SME 309 / Ortofon Cadenza Black making music

[jdandy]

My Ortofon Cadenza Black moving coil cartridge arrived today. Installing the Cadenza Black was easy, and setting up the SME 309 tonearm was a straight ahead procedure that had me marveling at the precision of UK engineering. I followed the SME 309 installation instructions to the letter, and in about two hours I had the arm and cartridge dialed in to my satisfaction.

Jeff called me to make sure I was happy with the Ortofon and wasn't having any difficulties. He is a fine audio dealer, and I highly recommend giving A/V Solutions the opportunity to serve your audio needs.

The first album I spun was Alan Parson's Project - Eye In The Sky. The Ortofon Cadenza Black sounds open and detailed right out of the box, so I am positive with a hundred hours or more on it there is more to come. When I raised the volume on the C2300 to 39 I began noticing some tube grid noise, sort of back ground level hash coming through during quiet passages and between tracks. I knew immediately the McIntosh stock tubes were the culprit, and they had to go. I pulled the C2300 out of the rack, removed the top cover, and replaced the stock 12AX7's with a pair of Telefunken 12AX7 tubes. With the C2300 back in the rack, I was immediately rewarded with a more liquid presentation, and dead silence from the tubes at the volume setting of 39. In fact, I had to raise the volume to 64 before I heard any tube grid noise. The Telefunken 12AX7's put the McIntosh stock tubes to shame.

I only have about five hours on the Ortofon Cadenza Black, but I am impressed with the openness, channel separation, and detail presented. It's too early to go into any lengthy review at this time, but I am smiling ear to ear, and very pleased with the Michell Gyro SE, SME 309 tonearm, and the Ortofon Cadenza Black. This combination makes an excellent vinyl playback rig.