Dear M. Lavigne: I would like that you come back again not to tell us what already posted but to tell us if you have any tiny concern/worry on what we are discussing here. I hope you can share your personal opinion on the whole subject.
Regards and enjoy the music,
R.
Raul,
my point of posting my positive experience about the MC Anna were to possibly bring some discussion of the actual merits of the performance of the Anna to the thread. obviously that was not what participants in this thread want to dwell on.
i did write a post a few days ago on this situation but elected to not post it because i felt it would simply fly back at me by all the agenda holders in the thread. since you are asking for it, here it is;
in the manufacturer's comment section, responding to Fremer's review, Louis Dorio, the US representative for Ortofon, basically thanks Fremer for the positive comments of which there were plenty and makes no attempt to defend or contest anything that Fremer says in the MC Anna review. Louis and Ortofon took the high road, likely the best way to go. and i respect that.
i don't want to get into any sort of excuse making for Ortofon or the MC Anna. however; i do know about the original group of 8-10 MC Anna cartridges that were brought over for CES demos and Fremer.....since i ended up purchasing one of these after it was used as a demo at CES. this first group was not intended for retail and were a 'pre-release' group. 2 or 3 of these did have some issues with the rubber material holding the stylus to the body. after this was discovered production for retail was delayed while it was investigated. 6 months later the Anna was released for retail.
my Anna from this pre-release group has been perfect. another one from this group is in a friend's system and used daily with zero issues. i don't have knowledge of the other's from this pre-release group.
lots of products have initial issues with first production runs. but if they are not high profile who would know.
Fremer could have spun his review in many different ways. he could have dealt with the 'pre-release' Anna issue in another way if he wanted to. we are left with the way he wrote it. a few years ago he annoited the Ortofon A90 'king of the hill' in a matter of speaking. now he pulls no punches with the Anna. i was surprised at how he decided to handle a problem with a 'pre-release' cartridge.
i think that it's more significant that Fremer made the choice to hit the MC Anna hard for the issues he had with it in terms of reviews in general, than what it might or might not say about the MC Anna. but that's just me and my perspective.
Ortofon surely has egg on their face for allowing any problems at all....but.....in any case; the MC Anna is a fantastic cartridge. listen to one if you can.
i'm not one to typically particpate in bashing any product, manufacturer or person. it's negativity which does not enhance my enjoyment of the hobby. in my job i'm dealing with those issues all the damn time. when threads go down those roads i go listen to music.
i've owned lots of cutting edge gear at first release. many times, particularly with new fresh designs, there is a manufacturers learning curve. i accept that as a price of admission to that type of product. beta testing and pre-release products can uncover things (like the Anna). those type issues should not destroy the viability of the product. even Honda occasionally has issues with new product lines despite billions of dollars of development costs.
it's interesting (but not surprising) to me that no one has posted in this thread (that i recall seeing) about the rave review in Absolute Sound for the MC Anna by Jonathan Valin. also interesting that so little has been made of the great things Fremer said about the performance of the Anna. this fact tells me where people on this thread are coming from.
