Vinyl Asylum: Ortofon 540MKII initial impressions. by HenryH

I had Nephew No. 1 mount the Ortofon in a spare Technics headshell for my SL-1200MK2. We just used the Technics overhang gauge. I swapped out the headshell on the Technics arm, set the VTF to 1.6g and adjusted the arm parallel to the LP surface for starters. As usual, the first LP on was EC's Slowhand on Polydor.

Man, this is a fine cartridge! Out of the gate, it is detailed top to bottom. No glare or brightness on top. I was a bit concerned the Gyger stylus would be bright, but it isn't, just gobs of detail and a broad, tall and deep soundstage. The female vocals on Slowhand are at once delicate yet distinct.

The bass is the best I've heard from a MM. It is deep, tight, yet resonant which came across vividly on RLJ's S/T debut LP on MFSL. The opening string bass on Easy Money is clearly the best I've heard from a MM, only bettered by my venerable DL-103.

Now, a couple of caveats. First the 540 is very high compliance, 25 um/mN and I don't know how good a match it would be for a SL-1200 without the arm damper. On mine, with the damper, I notice no signs of arm/cart incompatibility although Ed's resonance calculator gives a 7-8Hz figure in my setup. It certainly would not be recommended for an arm higher in mass than the SL-1200's. For an SME III or Infinity Black Widow it would be great, likely same for a JMW-9.

As the cartridge breaks in and i begin to play with the VTA, I'll post more. I do, however, prefer this cart to my trusty Shure Ultra 500, something I thought I'd never say about another MM.

Henry

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