The original Concordes for Audio use (not DJ) were super-light — by eliminating the headhsell, and the ’mechanical advantage’ of a 9-inch arm mulitplying the h’shell’s weight. Ortofon included a different, very small counterweight with the cartridge to compensate for this — it was about 80% lighter than the SME II c-wts I was using at the time, IIRC.
This markedly changed the arm’s effective mass, and may have led to so many gold-eared-audiophiles saying it was a lousy cartridge.
I never used one long enough to judge: I loaned it a friend and set it up for him, and it sounded very good on the SME/Thorens 125, through McIntosh pre- and power, and Martin Logan CLS-Z. The arm/TT, power-amp and speakers were mine, on indefinite loan (he was a good friend). Only the preamp was his.
Sadly he died... and died very sadly. The Executor of his estate believed me, but didn’t care that they were mine. However, she said I was welcome to bid on my own equipment at the estate auction.
She’d even give me a 10% discount if I bid the most for my own stuff and won.
I gave it a miss.
This markedly changed the arm’s effective mass, and may have led to so many gold-eared-audiophiles saying it was a lousy cartridge.
I never used one long enough to judge: I loaned it a friend and set it up for him, and it sounded very good on the SME/Thorens 125, through McIntosh pre- and power, and Martin Logan CLS-Z. The arm/TT, power-amp and speakers were mine, on indefinite loan (he was a good friend). Only the preamp was his.
Sadly he died... and died very sadly. The Executor of his estate believed me, but didn’t care that they were mine. However, she said I was welcome to bid on my own equipment at the estate auction.
She’d even give me a 10% discount if I bid the most for my own stuff and won.
I gave it a miss.