Woochifer
03-30-2005, 12:44 PM
After considering various alternatives, my Ortofon OM30 cartridge arrived yesterday. Needless to say, I was very anxious to lop my current Sumiko Black Pearl off my turntable, so that went in a hurry. After installing the new cartridge and fiddling with the headshell, the tonearm counterbalancing, and alignment, I was good to go.
On first listening, all I could say to my vinyl was welcome back! The bland sound and lopped off highs that I got with the Sumiko has been supplanted by the tight, lively, and detailed sound that I'd always enjoyed with Ortofon's OM series. Thus far, the OM30 seems like yet another step up from that. I'd used the OM10 and OM20 pretty much continuously until I had that Sumiko installed a few years ago. With the OM30, the sound has a lot of new openness at the top and just from my first impressions, it seems to have a fuller sound than my old OM20 did.
Since I'd just played a couple of my Pat Metheny Group LPs last week with the old cartridge, I spun those first after installing the new one. First thing I noticed was how much tighter the bass sounded, and the next thing I noticed was how much more pronounced the highs sounded. With the Sumiko, I found myself turning the treble up just to get the cymbals and percussion to sound halfway decent. With the OM30, I'm using the same tone bypass as every other source.
The next album I broke out was my direct-to-disc pressing of James Newton Howard & Friends, which I've used as my vinyl playback reference for almost 20 years. This is one of the best recordings you'll ever hear on any format, and I used to play it for people I knew who were unconvinced of vinyl's virtues. That LP still sounded decent with my old cartridge, but it no longer had that sound that could single-handedly create vinyl evangelists. With the OM30, the old bad boy was back! The percussion now had that tight and taut attack, the cymbals had extension and bite to them, and the piano sounds had depth and resonance. This is the type of sound that makes a good case for vinyl.
Needless to say, I'm a very happy camper. As I mentioned in another thread, the whole reason I switched to a different cartridge in the first place was the huge price increases on Ortofon's OM series. The OM20 that I used to buy for $80, now sold for nearly $200 and all of the dealers in my area that stocked replacement stylii for the Ortofons stopped carrying the brand. I did not like the idea of paying more double the price for the same cartridge, so I switched brands and suffered with it for a couple of years. Now that I have a brand new OM cartridge body, all I have to do to upgrade is step up to a different stylus, and the only step above the OM30 is to go with the 40 stylus. The 40 stylus uses the same Fritz-Gyger II diamond that's used in their high end moving coils, so that very well might be my next purchase down the line.
The Needle Doctor had a sale on the Ortofons, which is why I went with the OM30. At $160, this is a very good price for an excellent cartridge. The Absolute Sound rated the cartridge as an editor's choice even at its $300 list price. The Needle Doctor's Ortofon sale is now over, but they were still honoring the sale price if you order by phone and mention the ad in this month's Stereophile. Two other sites that still have the sale prices posted on the Ortofons are LP Gear and J&R.
On first listening, all I could say to my vinyl was welcome back! The bland sound and lopped off highs that I got with the Sumiko has been supplanted by the tight, lively, and detailed sound that I'd always enjoyed with Ortofon's OM series. Thus far, the OM30 seems like yet another step up from that. I'd used the OM10 and OM20 pretty much continuously until I had that Sumiko installed a few years ago. With the OM30, the sound has a lot of new openness at the top and just from my first impressions, it seems to have a fuller sound than my old OM20 did.
Since I'd just played a couple of my Pat Metheny Group LPs last week with the old cartridge, I spun those first after installing the new one. First thing I noticed was how much tighter the bass sounded, and the next thing I noticed was how much more pronounced the highs sounded. With the Sumiko, I found myself turning the treble up just to get the cymbals and percussion to sound halfway decent. With the OM30, I'm using the same tone bypass as every other source.
The next album I broke out was my direct-to-disc pressing of James Newton Howard & Friends, which I've used as my vinyl playback reference for almost 20 years. This is one of the best recordings you'll ever hear on any format, and I used to play it for people I knew who were unconvinced of vinyl's virtues. That LP still sounded decent with my old cartridge, but it no longer had that sound that could single-handedly create vinyl evangelists. With the OM30, the old bad boy was back! The percussion now had that tight and taut attack, the cymbals had extension and bite to them, and the piano sounds had depth and resonance. This is the type of sound that makes a good case for vinyl.
Needless to say, I'm a very happy camper. As I mentioned in another thread, the whole reason I switched to a different cartridge in the first place was the huge price increases on Ortofon's OM series. The OM20 that I used to buy for $80, now sold for nearly $200 and all of the dealers in my area that stocked replacement stylii for the Ortofons stopped carrying the brand. I did not like the idea of paying more double the price for the same cartridge, so I switched brands and suffered with it for a couple of years. Now that I have a brand new OM cartridge body, all I have to do to upgrade is step up to a different stylus, and the only step above the OM30 is to go with the 40 stylus. The 40 stylus uses the same Fritz-Gyger II diamond that's used in their high end moving coils, so that very well might be my next purchase down the line.
The Needle Doctor had a sale on the Ortofons, which is why I went with the OM30. At $160, this is a very good price for an excellent cartridge. The Absolute Sound rated the cartridge as an editor's choice even at its $300 list price. The Needle Doctor's Ortofon sale is now over, but they were still honoring the sale price if you order by phone and mention the ad in this month's Stereophile. Two other sites that still have the sale prices posted on the Ortofons are LP Gear and J&R.