Waiting for an invitation 😉
I installed a new Nagaoka MP-700
I installed a new Nagaoka MP-700 cartridge on my tricked-out AudioGrail Garrard 401 turntable with Jelco TK850L tonearm.
I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with London Decca to replace the stylus on my Decca Super Gold (Paratrace Decapod) as it involved sending it to the UK, so I thought I’d give this new top of the line Nagaoka MP (moving permalloy) a shot. I bought the model complete with the headshell.
It’s heavy and pushed the Jelco to its near end limits getting the arm balanced. Tracking is 1.4g. Setup was a doddle.
Initial impressions are very good. Black backgrounds, low noise floor, powerful and well-delineated bass. Fine detail and sharp leading edges. Sweet midband. Nice separation of instruments with good tonal color. Imaging is very good. Not as wide or deep as the Decca, however. I’ll see how it is after 50 hours. First few sides, it was a little shouty but seems to have settled down. Male vocals have a lovely wooden tone. It’s definitely tight like a well-rehearsed band, almost making the Decca sound slow. Low levels of surface noise.
Thomas Dolby, Crocked Still, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Leonard Cohen, The The, Doc Evans, Eagles, Pat Kirby
It may be the best cartridge I've had in by system.
More anon.
- ...
- 43 posts total
Jeez, you’re pretty good with reviewer-ese, the language of describing audio gear. But how can a stereo cartridge display “separation” on a mono recording? Do you refer to separation of instruments? I parked my ”inner emotional nuance” at the door. Couldn’t resist ribbing you a bit. I haven’t mounted my MP700 yet. |
@lewm It’s so noticeable. The stereo Decca spreads the mono recording across the soundstage past the speakers (like the inflated balloon view if you know what I mean) while the MP700 presented the same mono recording only centered between the speakers.
I guess I meant to say something like fine inner detail and emotional nuance. 🙃
|
"It's so noticeable. The stereo Decca spreads the mono recording across the soundstage past the speakers (like the inflated balloon view if you know what I mean) while the MP700 presented the same mono recording only centered between the speakers." What you are describing is actually that the Decca has a lot of cross talk and the Nagaoka is the better behaved cartridge. Far better as a matter of fact. |
Noromance, My reaction to the bit that Bill comments upon was somewhat the same as Bill's, but I did not think it through like Bill did. On the other hand, I never thought about comparing two stereo cartridges for performance on mono LPs. I do get the point that you prefer the Decca in general vs the MP700. |
- 43 posts total