Back to the Ortofon 2m Bronze. Initially, it was extremely bright, polite, and the tones and harmonic texturing were repulsive. Most reviews will talk of 20-50 hours of break-in for this cartridge. It took over 150 painful hours for me to listen to this cartridge for any extended period of time. Once the sonic signature was broken-in and aligned itself the Bronze still lacked "Solidity". It has good holographic imaging, crisp highs, and it's highly neutral, with treble, midrange and bass being neatly balanced. However, for one to look deeply into the music, it must have substantial body. A perfect analogy would be sanding a hardwood floor. If you sand it too deep, it is still a floor, albeit not a solid one. In my opinion, the Ortofon 2m Bronze fails to deliver the musical presentation with the solid and meaningful quality that is sine qua non to emotionally connect to the music.
After mounting the Ortofon 2m Bronze on my stock Thorens TD-126 MKIII and setting this fine-line stylus in the record grooves, I was astonished by the horrendous sound this cartridge produced. Let me digress for a moment. This turntable has been maligned because of its 72pole DC motor and its build quality in comparison with the TD-125 MKII which sports a 16pole AC motor. I have several friends who have the TD-125 MKII and my TD-126 MKIII outperforms them all. In my opinion, the DC motor of the 126 provides much blacker backgrounds which yield greater micro detail and smoother performance. In my opinion, I think it is one of the finest vintage Thorens ever produced. My Thorens feeds a restored Harman Kardon Citation 1 which feeds a McCormack DNA-500 which amplifies a pair of Focal Utopia Diva Be speakers.
Back to the Ortofon 2m Bronze. Initially, it was extremely bright, polite, and the tones and harmonic texturing were repulsive. Most reviews will talk of 20-50 hours of break-in for this cartridge. It took over 150 painful hours for me to listen to this cartridge for any extended period of time. Once the sonic signature was broken-in and aligned itself the Bronze still lacked "Solidity". It has good holographic imaging, crisp highs, and it's highly neutral, with treble, midrange and bass being neatly balanced. However, for one to look deeply into the music, it must have substantial body. A perfect analogy would be sanding a hardwood floor. If you sand it too deep, it is still a floor, albeit not a solid one. In my opinion, the Ortofon 2m Bronze fails to deliver the musical presentation with the solid and meaningful quality that is sine qua non to emotionally connect to the music.
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AuthorsMichael Miguest Archives
March 2023
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