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Model: MP 110 Category: Phono Cartridge Suggested Retail Price: $160 Description: Moving Magnet Phono Cartridge Manufacturer URL: Not Available
Review by strangebrewpr on June 21, 2020 at 13:51:15
IP Address: 98.165.208.167Add Your Review
for the MP 110My go to cartridge over the past 12 years has been a Ortofon Salsa Moving Coil which I consider to be an overachiever in its own right . Early on since I started on the bangwagen of good audio equipment I have always thought Moving Coil Cartridges to be superior to their Moving Magnet counterparts . I believe during my exposure to audio there was only once that I departed from my beliefs and held a different sort of cartridge and that was a MCZ from Grado which are not Moving Magnets but rather Moving Iron . It was a very enjoyable and musical cartridge to listen too.
Having used my Ortofon for so many years on a daily basis I thought it was time to get me a new one but being low on funds made me realized that , being rather more expensive the Moving Coils variety I had no choice but to go the with another type of generating system. Moving Magnets or Moving Iron as la Grado .
After the ususal searching in the internet reading opinions and reviews of various cartridges in my price range it basically boiled down to two. The Ortofon Blue or the Nagaoka MP 110 . I opted for the Nagaoka over the Ortofon . Why ? Even though both had excellent reviews the Nagaoka seemed to have a rather more fervent following behind it and those who had them sweared by their families that the performance of the cartridge was way above its price point . Even one person who had a Dynavector which I consider to be an excellent moving coil said that the Nagaoka MP110 was so close to the sound of his expensive Dynavector that it was difficult for him to admit it . But admit it he did.
Nagaoka has been around for quite some time . Their discontinued MP 11 had a rather large following around it when it was out years ago and this MP 110 is its direct replacement. Its a rather bulky cartridge but with a boxy shape making it easy for installation and alignment. Its cantilever is made of aluminum alloy with a superfine polished eliptical shaped bonded needle . It weights in at 6.5 with 5Mv of output. Frequency range from 20 to 20 , channel balance at 1.5 dB and separation at 23dB. Tracking force 1.5 to 2.0 grams , I am using it at its maximum of 2.0 grams .
It comes with the neccesary hardware for instalation , even a small screwdriver . Everything came nicely packaged and with instruction on how to but they were in japaneese but with drawings which were self explanatory in their own way . The manufacturer expresses that burn in time is 30 hours . More on that latter . Initially the sound of the cartridge was very warm with a rather downward high end with a bit powerful but soft low end , not partically detailed . Soundstaging was ok . Depth perception was not impresive but it did have some .
Having come from the Ortofon Moving coil and its highly neutral caracter I was less then enchanted with the Nagaokas warmness as I deemed it to much and made the cartridge sound coloured . But knowing the nature of the beast as some audio equipment need that burn in process in order to sound how its suppose to I just kept on hearing music with the cartridge , especially considering the fact that the manufacturer mentions the burnin in their literature as being 30 hours.
One more sound caracteristic the cartridge had before the burn in process was complete was together with the warmness a certain dryness to the sound that upon hearing for extended sessions became irritating and manifested itself mostly in its rolled off highend .
Upon the almost completed 30 hour period metamorfosis set in . The soundstage had already opened up with layering galore and good depth
. Imaging specificity was very good with proper side to side and great height clues in recordings that had that information . The dryness was no where to be heard and had been replaced by a very liquidity that was highly adictive manifesting itself at the midband and high end. This liquidty or exceedingly low grain sound made the whole midband very transparent and gave the whole sound of the cartridge a certain presence that made you feel that the performers were right in the room with you .
The bass was more detailed now even though the midbass still retained some of the softness I mentioned at the beginning but had proper dynamics . I cant comment on the very low bass as my speakers are now Magnepans MG12 that can only go so much in the low bass . All I can say is that I was impress and surprised when hearing recordings with very low bass on how low my maggies went with this cartridge .
Dynamics were very good with no compression to be heard and excellent handling of transients . This is a very quiet cartridge that does not excacerbate tracking noise . Records that were very noisy with my Ortofon were now listenable . I dont have any way of testing its tracking ability but I can say it tracked my records better then my Ortofon with very low levels of audibility on end of record groves
I am very impress with this cartridge and I had no idea that a low cost Moving Magnet cartridge existed that was capable of this performance . The one sentence I could use to describe this cartridge is that it is a music lovers cartridge as its caracteristics make the music more involving and intense . It is so good as to make me wonder how its more expensive offering sound . This is the MP110 but there is the less expensive offering , the MP100 and the MP150 , MP200 all the way up to the 1,000 dollar offering . Highly recommended .
Product Weakness: Has a slight warmness to its sound that does not completely go away with breakin . Product Strengths: Performs way above its price in a highly musical way Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Mccormack DNA 125 Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Elekit TU 8500 tube preamp Sources (CDP/Turntable): modified project 1 expression 2 Opera Audio Turndot CDP Speakers: Magnepan MG12 modified Crossovers Cables/Interconnects: JPS Labs interconnects , speaker cable and power cable Music Used (Genre/Selections): Ecleptic Room Size (LxWxH): 45 feet x 16 feet x 10 feet Room Comments/Treatments: normal furnishing and rug Time Period/Length of Audition: over 50 hours Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Richard Grey Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner
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Topic - REVIEW: Nagaoka MP 110 Phono Cartridge - strangebrewpr 13:51:15 06/21/20 (3)
- RE: REVIEW: Nagaoka MP 110 Phono Cartridge - Capt. Z 01:10:52 06/23/20 (0)
- RE: REVIEW: Nagaoka MP 110 Phono Cartridge - suretyguy 05:01:41 06/22/20 (1)
- RE: REVIEW: Nagaoka MP 110 Phono Cartridge - fstein 08:09:11 06/22/20 (0)
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