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Fremer's review of the Anna cartridge

Fremer reviews the $8499 cartridge very positively, but it takes three different samples of the cartridge for him to get there. The first sample exhibited "an incompatibility between the adhesives used and the elastomer of which the cartridge's damper is made." Fremer notes "[e]vidently, however, this problem didn't affect every Anna that left the factory." Wow, what a relief. In the second sample, apparently "some the glue that secures the stylus in the cantilever had dripped." The third sample, after 100 hrs of break-in finally delivered. Fremer suggests buying and using an USB microscope as part of the cartridge buying process.

Does anyone else think this is absolutely nuts? It seems to me, at this price level, every single cartridge should be absolutely perfect. Haven't Ortofon heard of quality control? This also applies to Lyra whose $9500 Atlas cartridge had the stylus affixed to the cantilever at an angle that made it virtually impossible to get the SRA of 92 degrees.
actusreus
sarcher30
596 posts
 
Retipping once a year is no big deal if your cartridge manufacture does it for a reasonable cost. Unfortunately most of these uber expensive carts cost at least half the retail price to be retipped by the original manufacture if they will do it at all. If you have someone else retip it then it likely wont sound the same. That could be good or bad.

Personally I'm with Lewm on not spending this much on a cart. I've heard both the Atlas and the Anna in other peoples systems and they are good but I'm not convinced they are worth the money.
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Sarcher,

Good points. In fact, to your point, Fremer had his Ortofon A90 retipped at a cost of "a few thousand dollars, close to the A90's original price of $4200." To me, that's absurd. In my opinion, if indeed most styli can only perform best for about a year with moderate listening habits, which is an awfully short length of time compared to other equipment, one retip should either be offered if not gratis, at least at a fraction of the original price.
downunder
1,328 posts
 
It is the 1200 - 1500 hours life span of the replicant 100 stylus that has me staying clear of buying another Ortofon cart with this extreme stylus profile.

The Lyra micro line stylus luckily will last at least double that.

The rebuild prices are not unreasonable as they have to virtually rebuild the cartridge.

For me my A90 is unlikely to be rebuilt, however my Atlas surely will.

Cheers
nandric's avatar
nandric
3,263 posts
 
The cart producers get the whole cantilever/stylus combo from their supplier. The so called 'retip' is usually a simple substitution of this combo. The 'real retip' by which a new stylus is glued in the existing cantilever seems to be much more difficult job to do. So the solution of the 'stylus problem' is obvious. To 'virtually rebuild the cartridge' and ask unreasonable price make no sense to me. If one need to change the tyre one will rarely rebuild the whole car because of the tyre. No wonder the most of us use repair cervices like Ledermann , Axel Schurholz, Van den Hul, etc.
kiddman
341 posts
 
"IMHO any manufacturer who is "beta" testing on the public has no right to be in business"

I would agree, but what you don't know is how many of the supposed "great names" essentially do this exact thing! Little scientific testing, designs by guys who are little more than garage tinkerers, thrown out there with a high price tag. It's all over the industry.
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