Where's my Nagaoka peeps at?!?

He made a video at one point saying why he deleted his old channel. It had to do with some political leaning videos he made that offended some folks.

 

Hopefully this post will help you with deciding which way to go in purchasing Nagaoka and up grading the MP110, MP150 and MP200. This is my first post on this forum and as an introduction I am a 64 year old semi retired and since 16 years of age a budget minded audio enthusiast. I am coming from the most bang for the buck section of the audio buying consumer population. I have no financial interest in what I will be talking about and although I have been on eBay for over 20 years I have never sold any Nagaoka products. I have sold some of my older Ortofon cartridges that I didn't need after upgrading to Nagaoka products.

As in the case of most things in Audio sound quality (SQ) especially Phono Cartridges these are my opinions and although very knowledgeable after all these years in Audio especially vinyl I don't claim to be the end all expert. I have for all my adult life owned at least one turntable with numerous cartridges . They have been of various quality. From my first Arvin record player at age 13 to my Dual 504 in college and up to my mid 30's to my Rega P1 with upgraded motor and glass plater to my current Music Hall MMF 5.0. As you can see these are not exotic or pricy tables. However, with the right cartridge they can sound very good. My system is also fairly modest mainly being Emotiva gear. A Emotiva XSP-1 generation 1 and Emotiva XPA -200 amp plus numerous speakers including Paradigm, Monitor Audio , Emotiva T1, and Do it your self custom built speakers.

As with most of you I have been a fan of Ortofon and used their Phono Cartridges for years and their performance for the bang of the buck was phenomenal . I stick to the basics 2M Red and 2M blue as the rest of the line was out of my budget. However after being on You Tube and seeing the numerous videos and the Nagaoka line and how it compared to them I was smitten. About six months ago I purchased a used Nagaoka MP110 on eBay for $70 and was very pleasantly surprised at the performance of this modestly priced cartridge . In my opinion it trounced the Ortofon Red and in many ways was equal to the Blue. As I write this the current new price for the lowest MP110 on eBay from Japan and Amazon is $109. I think that this is a steal. I also got the bug to upgrade, but as always lacking funds could not afford the MP200. The Ortofon line is $100 for the Red and the Blue runs $236.

I did not do as much research as I should of on the net before I found a JN-P-200 on eBay for $126 and bought it. As most of you know all the stylus in the Nagaoka line fit each other, but the cartridge body is upgraded on the MP-150 and MP-200 from the body of the MP110. However , when I did the upgrade I was not aware of this. I was very happy with the sound upgrade of the 200 stylus on the 110 body. I definitely thought that it was worth the cost of the $126. The highs were more airy and the bass was a little more solid.

I was still wondering what I was missing in not having the "correct" body with my 110 body and 200 stylus. I got a small bonus at work and had some extra change in my pocket I saw a MP150 cartridge with head shell on Amazon for $215 and with my purchase of a second used table for digitizing LP's I was in need of another phono cartridge. I ended up using the MP-150 body (same as the MP-200 body ) but with a different color (green, vs. purple ) on my Music Hall 5.0. After using the stylus gauge and alignment tools and satisfied with the set up of the cartridge I was very happy to hear that (at least for me ) a large upgrade in the SQ over the 110 body with the 200 stylus. The highs were even more airy and present with out being over bright (like I have found in some of the Audio Technica cartridges ) . The bass was much more present with out being boomy. Much better than the 2M Blue Ortofon in my opinion . Is the 200 better than the Ortofon Bronze and Black ? I can't say as I have never owned them. I was also very impressed with the overall sound quality of the MP-150 that does not have the boron cantilever. It is a very good cartridge not quit as airy, but has almost as much bass as the mp200.

In total my upgrade experiment cost me $411. but I have two very good cartridges out of that $411. To offset this cost I am in the process of selling my old Ortofon cartridges. On the Music Hall I have the Nagaoka MP-150 body with the jn-P-200 stylus. So it is the same as the MP-200, but the stylus color plastic (purple ) and the body (green ) do not match. It looks a little mismatched. On my second table an old Realistic Lab-440 I have the Nagaoka mp110 body with MP150 stylus. It is a very good combination and although not as delicate in sound as the MP200 combo it is very nice.

If I had it to do over again, and only needed one phono cartridge instead of two and you are tight on money. I would strongly recommend the MP-150 cartridge for $215 on Amazon or if that deal over the normal price on a MP-150 at $250. You can up grade to the MP200 stylus for about $125 from Japan after the mp150 stylus needs to be replaced. . These Nagaoka's are very good for the price, I believe the best SQ for the price. Sorry for such a long post.

 

I think what I would recommend too is for people to retip their styli when they run out. Elipticals are far from perfect and getting a worn one reused into a Paratrace or micro ridge type is money spent well. Only 120£ for the 150 stylus assembly and 180£ for the 200 at Expert Stylus C.O UK.

 

That's one hell of a deal with the headshell. I bought the MP-110 with the accompanying headshell and it works great. It's a little longer than the stock Technics and therefore sits almost flush with the edge after the 52mm overhang. It looks and sounds great.

https://www.amazon.com/NAGAOKA-MP-150H-AUDIO-Cartridge-CARTRIDGE/dp/B002SDU688/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=NAGAoka+mp-150&qid=1558964559&s=gateway&sr=8-2

 

Nice post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts in-depth.
.

 

ahhh... I did not know this fact

 

So been awile since I've had a phono stage with adjustable capacitance. As you know reccomended capacitance for Nagaoka cartridges is all over the place from 0 to 600+ if searching on the web. Been playing around with a MP-200 with a Manley Chinook and finding the 350 pf setting to be the fullest/richest sound. So with the added capacitance of about 100 with an AQ King Cobra 1M cable and tonearm wiring somewhere close to 450pf. Sounds best so far but will experiment more

 

I'm definitely decided to buy whole cart MP-200 instead of Jpn-200. But where is the best price on ebay from Japan of course

 

Hey guys, do you know why Jeff already again closed his super vinyl youtube channel?

 

Using a price tracker, the lowest MP-200 on Amazon sold for $331 in May of this year. They are now up to $400. From recollection, Ebay prices are not far off from these numbers. If you buy now, you may pay more. Prices for carts from Japan tend to fluctuate wildly. The Denon DL-110, which is usually $225+ was down to $160 a month ago. Now it's back up again.

 

I have MP-200 almost one mount now and I was to compare it with the AT150SA. I would say very similar sound but nagaoka is better due to some warmer character of sound.

 

I followed his channel from time to time. Earlier this month or last month he did mention that he would probably be shutting down sometime around early August, so that probably explains it. IIRC he also mentioned he would be selling off all his records and gear.

 

I will probably rethink this post but I am compelled to put in my oar. When I first got my Linn Sondek Valhalla plus LVX from Noel Cloney in 1983 it came with an MP30 from the first owner of the LVX who had upgraded to the Ittok arm. I used it for a while but it seemed anodyne and I have been through a few cartridges since - MP15, MP20, Linn Basik, Linn K9, several Sumiko Bluepoints - and recently found myself revisiting my box of very small hifi parts, when the most recent Sumiko was clearly worn and distorting. I tried all the old viable cartridges again, just to check, you know, but only the MP30 still tracked well - to be fair, it always did.
To give it its best chance, having lost the little black plastic screws, I glued the white stylus holder to the metal body with nail varnish, for rigidity. Thís works and is immediately reversible with nail varnish remover (of course!). Back into the head shell (nuts up for ease of mounting) and off we go.
It has been a great success. The tracking and smooth sound is still there and the nail varnish added rigidity is bringing out a lot of detail and vitality that I had missed all those years ago. I am not hearing any obvious distortion due to age and wear.
So here I am, with a 35 year old MP30 that I am very happy to pick up and continue to use. My surprise to find that that is the case has impelled me to consider a new MP300 stylus replacement in due course and to search out the reviews and discussions, et voilà!
I must recommend the MP30 and by extension I expect the MP300 not to disappoint.

 

After much more listening I've been loading the MP200 with 200 pf capacitance. Seems to produce the best mix of realistic cymbals and rich sound. Wonder why Nagaoka doesn't publish optimum capacitance.

 

I'm curious, what do you notice as you move the capacitance up and down in terms of sound quality? So for instance, does raising the capacitance produce a brighter and thinner sound, or is it the opposite, and going up you find it to be warmer/fuller? I have an MP150 and just recently got a phono preamp that will allow me to experiment with capacitance loading (Moon 110LP v2)....however, due to the pandemic, my wife and kid are home ALL THE TIME...so when I do have a minute to experiment, I'd like to have a good idea of what to listen for, because my time is going to be extremely limited for the foreseeable future!

 

One thing we have noticed is what happens if an amplifier gets stored for a long time like several years. If that happens, it seems to go through a break-in period again when its used again. This seems to support my earlier comments about filter capacitors playing a role. But I think there is more to it than that and this bit I'm not comfortable with at all because it seems that wire has something to do with it too. So far I've not sorted out any sort of test we can do to prove or disprove that, but we did notice this some years back when we went from the Mk2 series to the Mk3 series. One of the changes in the Mk3s was a new wire and we found that they tended to break in much faster than the Mk2s with its different wire (both were 20ga solid core OFC BTW, the difference being primarily the dielectric). Super annoying- I don't like hearing things that I can't explain and/or measure. I was that way about power cords until I sorted out how to measure what they do.

 

being primarily the dielectric). Super annoying- I don't like hearing things that I can't explain and/or measure. I was that way about power cords until I sorted out how to measure what they do

 

Please share your measurments of power cord differences and its audibility.

 

Hey all, I have a Nagaoka MP-110, only 20 hours on it so far, if that. On my Pioneer PL-518 with tracking at 1.80 and antiskate at around 1.5. I love it, but it seems to be a low rider, per photo. Is this how everyone else's looks, or could my suspension be bottomed out? During install I accidentally -- but only briefly -- had the tracking too heavy, like 3.5 grams. Long enough to set it down on the digital scale and quickly lift up to fix. Could this have damaged the suspension or does this close up shot look typical of how the Nagoaka rides? It even plays warped records fine, ie the bottom of the cartridge doesn't touch the record surface.

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Doesnt look too low to me. I would have liked to see the stylus a bit better though, theres a lot of dust in the way.

 

And I take it you wont. Not surprised.

 

Nagatron Ribbon Cartridges And Step Up Devices- Vinyl Engine

Here is some information on the great Nagaoka ribbon cartridges of the past .
I have the Jeweltone JTR3 1/2 inch mount very rare

 

I think for anyone who was using say an AT95E, basic model, the Nagaoka MP110 is a great upgrade in sound. The listenability, for endless hours without fatigue certainly makes the swap to the 110 a great upgrade. For someone used to a more refined cart, say a 2M Black, playing in that same range with Nagaoka carts may not be all that great a choice. Basically if you are going to be spending decent money on a cart, there are better options value wise than Nagaoka. If you are playing in the 100 dollar range, the MP 110 is a great choice, I much prefer it over say a 2M Red.

 

I much prefer my MP-500 over my 2M Black. Big time.

 

I'd say yours looks pretty similar to mine