illinoisteve
Super Member
Some weeks ago, finding an Ortofon cartridge with a bad stylus for sale on ebay, and with few others seeming to take an interest in it, I decided to wade into the nearly non-existent bidding and picked it up cheap. From time to time, I had heard the Ortofon name tossed about by people who seemed to think it was pretty special, but lolling around happily in or between Pick-Stant-eringland and Shureland, I wasn't overly impressed. But finally curiosity got the better of me. Of course, not knowing beans about Ortofons, which I keep wanting to spell with a "PH" instead of an "F," I really didn't know if the cartridge I was ordering was one of their lauded ones.
Anyway, the cartridge came. I tried my hand at untwisting the very end of the cantilever on the original Ortofon FF 10 XE needle, but made it worse. After some weeks went by, during which I tested the coils and also verified I could get something that sounded right from brushing the bad cantilever with the cartridge mounted, I decided to get the Pfanstiehl 4540-DEV (.3 x .7 mil elliptical) which TVOM recommends as the replacement. Original Ortofons are also still available, but not an investment I would want to start with. The recommended VTF for the original (and the Pfanny) is 1.7 - 2.3 grams. I tried 2, but as the cart seemed to sit too low at that setting, I lowered it to about 1.8, which has seemed to work just fine. No mistracking. No sibilance.
This morning I'm trying out the cartridge with the Pfanny. On the version of Holst's "The Planets" with Sir Adrian Boult and The New Philharmonia Orchestra, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how clear and bell like all of the "high tinklies" of notes played on celeste and high register percussion instruments were. Obviously most of the harmonics of those notes were coming through, keeping them sounding very much alive. The channel separation was very good. The entire mid and upper range seemed detailed and open. The bass didn't seem to stand out particularly, but those instruments don't seem to be closely miked in that recording.
Moving on to Stephane Grappelli's "Just One of Those Things," this cartridge and stylus seems to do an excellent job of rendering an acoustic jazz quintet. Again, the detail and separation is impressive. High-pitched percussion is close to sounding in the room with me. Everything in the midrange sounds very clear and open and resonant. The bass sounds very good in the passages when it is especially featured, though is not as present in other passages as I might hear with my Stanton 881S cartridge, but then this was considered a "Bargain Cartridge" was it not when it was first available?
I have tried to do more research on this, and related, Ortofons this morning. There isn't a lot of detail about the cartridges themselves, separate from how they were sold with particular needles, at vinylengine. The FF cartridges and the VMS cartridges seem very similar, though some of the VMS models called for different loading. According to Ortofon, LP Gear, and TVOM, proper replacement needles for a cartridge originally sporting the FF10XE needle would be needles that also fit a VMS model, like the Ortofon VMS3E needle.
Researching some of the old AK threads mentioning the Ortofon FF carts, I find threads that include more than one poster calling them very good and very under-rated cartridges of their time.
Postscript: Just getting around to "How High the Moon" on side two of the Grappelli album, one of my favorite needle test tracks, and I must admit that I could put together several needle cartridge combos, with my previous stable of cartridges, that would not sound as good as I'm hearing. And only a couple of combos I could throw in would sound clearly better in some aspect. Dang it, now I have to consider whether I eventually want to spring for an Original Ortofon needle for this thing -- 'cause maybe this cart can sound even better! Maybe next Christmas....
.
Anyway, the cartridge came. I tried my hand at untwisting the very end of the cantilever on the original Ortofon FF 10 XE needle, but made it worse. After some weeks went by, during which I tested the coils and also verified I could get something that sounded right from brushing the bad cantilever with the cartridge mounted, I decided to get the Pfanstiehl 4540-DEV (.3 x .7 mil elliptical) which TVOM recommends as the replacement. Original Ortofons are also still available, but not an investment I would want to start with. The recommended VTF for the original (and the Pfanny) is 1.7 - 2.3 grams. I tried 2, but as the cart seemed to sit too low at that setting, I lowered it to about 1.8, which has seemed to work just fine. No mistracking. No sibilance.
This morning I'm trying out the cartridge with the Pfanny. On the version of Holst's "The Planets" with Sir Adrian Boult and The New Philharmonia Orchestra, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how clear and bell like all of the "high tinklies" of notes played on celeste and high register percussion instruments were. Obviously most of the harmonics of those notes were coming through, keeping them sounding very much alive. The channel separation was very good. The entire mid and upper range seemed detailed and open. The bass didn't seem to stand out particularly, but those instruments don't seem to be closely miked in that recording.
Moving on to Stephane Grappelli's "Just One of Those Things," this cartridge and stylus seems to do an excellent job of rendering an acoustic jazz quintet. Again, the detail and separation is impressive. High-pitched percussion is close to sounding in the room with me. Everything in the midrange sounds very clear and open and resonant. The bass sounds very good in the passages when it is especially featured, though is not as present in other passages as I might hear with my Stanton 881S cartridge, but then this was considered a "Bargain Cartridge" was it not when it was first available?
I have tried to do more research on this, and related, Ortofons this morning. There isn't a lot of detail about the cartridges themselves, separate from how they were sold with particular needles, at vinylengine. The FF cartridges and the VMS cartridges seem very similar, though some of the VMS models called for different loading. According to Ortofon, LP Gear, and TVOM, proper replacement needles for a cartridge originally sporting the FF10XE needle would be needles that also fit a VMS model, like the Ortofon VMS3E needle.
Researching some of the old AK threads mentioning the Ortofon FF carts, I find threads that include more than one poster calling them very good and very under-rated cartridges of their time.
Postscript: Just getting around to "How High the Moon" on side two of the Grappelli album, one of my favorite needle test tracks, and I must admit that I could put together several needle cartridge combos, with my previous stable of cartridges, that would not sound as good as I'm hearing. And only a couple of combos I could throw in would sound clearly better in some aspect. Dang it, now I have to consider whether I eventually want to spring for an Original Ortofon needle for this thing -- 'cause maybe this cart can sound even better! Maybe next Christmas....
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