Needledrops: Ortofon 2M Blue & Nagaoka MP-110

Talking about detail is hard. Many things can give the illusion of detail, such as a brighter sound. Its why Japanese records are often regarded as "detailed", because they push the high end more than original counterparts.
Personally Im like you and prefer a more balanced and fuller sound.

 

This is a good reason for owning different cartridges with different tonalities. You can swap them depending on the record.

 

Or buy a press that fits your listening needs best, if there are options.

 

No, pops is related to dirt and friction of stylus to vinyl (and static). So that is the polish of the stylus mostly. A low frequency resonance may cause tonearm to vibrate, and is also causing the stylus to bend more when playing warps. It causes slight speed variations, but also dynamic variation of VTA/SRA/VTF. These things may cause sonic differences.

 

Nothing to do with this thread but an observation - Uppsala seems to have a few people on here.

For many years 'til I retired in 2017, I took the train Arlanda-Borlange (...on to Mora) passing through Uppsala station. Maybe I should have stopped off.

Hej guys!

 

If you ever do I strongly recommend you visit Open Mind. Best record store in Uppsala without question ;^)

 

...and therefore I have 3 cartridges with different tonality At440MLb, 150SA and Nagaoka MP-110 too.

 

Still waiting...

 

Oh yeah, I completely forgot. I opened the link and realized I had to log onto dropbox or something. Maybe I should try again.

 

Yes Dropbox but you should be able to download without the need to login. But don't worry, you don't have to, it's just that I was reading this thread again.

 

Do you have any Bowie records? If there is anyway you do a sample set with something Bowie, that would be amazing. I'm upgrading from an M97xe, and I have narrowed it down to these two carts (maybe the AT440mlb as well) and someone suggested this thread.

I'm listening to these with my SennheiserHD598R, here are my impressions, not having heard any of these songs before:
The Dammed - the Nag has deeper bass, an a touch more mid range.
Miles - Can't put my finger on it, but the Nag sounds more natural.
SD - Snare and vocals a bit more present on the Nag

I didn't go into it preferring one over the other, and in all honesty, I was probably skeptical of the Nag just because I've heard so much about Ortofons and nothing about Nags. I was surprised to prefer it on all the songs.

 

I have noticed recently some severe IGD in a few records when using the Ortofon 2M Blue. It's actually just a few records and this is why I hadn't noticed before. I checked alignment, it's good. I played a little with VTF with no results. Then I tried less anti-skate and it improved a little. I removed the slip mat from under the rubber mat, so elevating VTA in about 1mm, improved a bit more. But still too much IGD. Glen Danzig's voice almost disappears from right channel in Her Black Wings, last song on Side A of Danzig II Lucifuge. Guitars and vocals get very distorted in TSOL's Flowers By The Door, last song on Side A of Change Today? Danzig sounds really awful. TSOL sounds pretty bad.

I then swapped it to the Nagaoka MP-110. No IGD at all in both songs. Tracks perfectly.

I'm not the master of alignment and adjustment but I believe I did it right so I thought I should report this to the forum.

 

I need to retract. It was an alignment problem. I correctly aligned it to Baerwald and no more IGD with the 2M Blue playing the Danzig record. I didn't try the other record but most likely it will play with no IGD too.

 

How well does the Nag track, re. lessening inner groove distortion vs. the 2m Blue? (@crispi , referring to an old post of yours concerning 2m Blue tracking, if you have any knowledge of the Nag's tracking, as well).

 

Naga tends to fly under the radar 'cuz they don't advertise.

They also (quietly) make some of Goldring's carts.
.

 

Does it make sense to compare two audio clips that haven't been matched volume-wise?

I always heard you should match volume because even a little difference in dB can/will affect how listeners perceive different audio clips.

 

Seems like the Nag is better surprisingly. Would have put my money on the Blue assuming its thinner.

 

Some people are stuck on A/B testing. It's not always needed to tell a difference.

 

Even in the Youtube video, the Blue is obviously superior in all ways. In the video he claims that the bottom end is nicer on the Nag, its actually puffy and unnatural. However, the Blue should be a fair bit better at its price point and isn't.

 

It depends on the system and record too. But yes, I do think the Blue and Ortofon in general is more neutral than Nagaoka.

The question was regarding tracking though, and surprisingly the Nag seems better in the test.

 

The tracking test should IMO also be made with HF content. With a highly modulated LF groove it is not easy to say if it is speed or x-max that is limiting.

 

I think there is no need since the Blue should be objectively better at that, given a thinner diamond.

 

I owned the MP-110, but not the 2M Blue. I also own the VM-540ML. On my tube set the MP-110 was too dull (soft) sounding. The VM540ML has more details and is likely similar to the 2M Blue per what I have read. The MP-110 is very smooth sounding and perhaps removes possible SS more 'edgy' response vs smooth sounding tubes. MP-110 better for SS and 2M Blue better for tubes?

 

Depends on the rest of the setup and record as well.

 

Not to my ears. Mp 110 is too dull for my SS setup as well.