Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

On the face of it, every performance difference between the MC Anna Diamond [HFN Oct '19] and this latest flagship boils down to the mechanical (compliance and damping) properties of the latter's suspension polymer. That and the increase in bodyweight of the sintered titanium shell from a high 16g to an even higher 17.5g. All else being equal, reducing the suspension compliance would keep the tonearm/cartridge resonance 'on track' but Ortofon has actually relaxed lateral compliance from 10cu to 13cu in the MC Diamond while simultaneously recommending a higher 2.6g downforce, up from the Anna Diamond's 2.4g. Arm matching is subsequently a little trickier – lower effective mass types being preferred – while tracking is fractionally less secure, the MC Diamond holding on to the 70-75μm test tracks before letting go on the +18dB groove modulation (315Hz lateral cut, re. 11.2μm) where THD increased to ~6%. It is, however, still a very fine tracker!

The low 168µV (re. 1kHz/5cm/sec) output is closer to that of the original MC Anna [HFN Oct '12] than the Anna Diamond's 207µV but the uniformity of the generator's magnetic field, and symmetry of the cantilever/coil suspension, maintains a superb balance between lateral (L+R), vertical (L-R) and stereo responses [Graph 1, below] and lateral, vertical and stereo distortion profiles [Graph 2]. It's here that we see the benefits of the new suspension with reduced distortion, down from a peak of 11% to 7% at 20kHz (re. –8dB re. 5cm/sec), and a more extended response, now +1.9dB/20kHz up from –0.7dB/20kHz. In the MC Diamond, Ortofon is squeezing every last drop of performance from a proven moving-coil generator. PM