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Thread: New Arrival - ORTOFON SPU A95 ANNIVERSARY

  1. #1
    Join Date: Mar 2016

    Location: Barnet, london UK

    Posts: 2,146
    I'm Adam.

    Default New Arrival - ORTOFON SPU A95 ANNIVERSARY

    So after much badgering and penny pinching, I have managed to prise away Petrat's very sparsely used, Ortofon SPU A95 Anniversary.

    I’ve bee playing with a couple of Vintage SPUs over the past couple of years which were wonderful and a great introduction to the unique SPU sound.
    Sometimes, for everyday listening they can be a little rich in flavour, other times they just ooze character and really hit the spot with the music I mainly listen to, Jazz.

    A fantastic all round cartridge was the more modern approach, the Ortofon Royal N.
    This is a cracking cartridge, which retains that SPU richness through the mids and a lovely controlled bass but also ups the detail output and is very clever at balancing both.
    The Royal N used a fancier tip than the original SPUs, Nude Ortofon Replicant 100 and also has Electrum coils, consisting of a gold and silver alloy.
    Altogether a satisfying combination of juice, oomph and detail...a keeper! ....but then came along this beautiful thing below.

    I can only say the Ortofon SPU A95 Anniversary is such a classy performer it just demands to be played.
    It has an Elliptical tip, so tips it's hat towards vintage SPUs, has a wholeness about it's character that is 100% in line with the originals.
    It's Coilwire material is Silver-plated Copper and thus surpasses even the Royal N in it's detail retrieval.
    For me it's a wonderful combination of legacy SPU sound and feel with a modern spin offering the sparkle and subtlety present in good Moving Coils.

    On the end of my SME 3012, it's a match made in heaven. Oh, and it comes in a pretty box!

    some more info from the Ortofon site:

    The mechanical structure of the SPU A95 cartridge has also been re-engineered, as well as many of its internal assemblies. At the mechanical heart lies a revolutionary customized SLM (Selective Laser Melting) manufacturing procedure. The use of Titanium in SPU A95 has provided a further improvement to the internal damping capabilities as well as to the overall rigidity of the structure.

    Another special feature is the inclusion of the renowned Field Stabilizing Element (FSE) system, which consists of a small cylinder of conductive material placed strategically inside of the magnetic system. FSE guarantees that the force field within the system will remain stable at all times regardless of the movement of the armature.

    A Nude Elliptical diamond stylus graces the aluminum cantilever, representative of the legacy created by SPUs past, along with a black painted, grinded wood body.






    Last edited by WESTLOWER; 28-05-2019 at 18:30.
    "lack of passion is fatal"


    Vinyl: Thorens TD-124mk2 / SME-312 Aluminium 'special' / SME M2-9R / STEREO: Etsuro Urushi Cobalt / Shure M3D / Ortofon SPU A95 / Cartridge Man Music Master / Shure - SC35C (US) / SAEC C3 MC MONO: Miyajima Zero B 0.7mil mono / Miyajima Premium 1.0 / Amps & SUTs: Radford STA25 mk3 / AD Audio 'Satchmo2' pre & LCR phono / Hashimoto HM-7 SUT / ETR-MONO SUT Digital: Audio Note 4.1 (with DAC5 upgrades) DAC / Roon / Tidal Speakers: Tannoy 12" MGs' in RFC custom 'Rutland' Cabinets with RFC crossovers / Tannoy ST-100 Super Tweeters Cables: LFD Grainless phono / RFC Mercury / Duelund DCA16GA tinned copper / Kimber 12TC / SW1X Audio Design USB-SPdif / Duelund DCA20GA interconnects / SW1X Audio SPDIF Aero 6 / Mains Power Conditioner / Box Furniture rack / Audiodesk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner / a very beautiful & understanding Wife!

  2. #2
    montesquieu Guest

    Default

    Nice one Adam. Out of all the many many SPUs that have been here (from Royal N, Royal GM, Gold, Synergy, Spirit, Silver Meister, any number of vintage and non-vintage G variants from GTE to GM MkII, etc etc) the A95 was undoubtedly my favourite. It's a truly fantastic cartridge and looks the business too!

    Enjoy! (And first dibs ...).

  3. #3
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Birmingham

    Posts: 6,772
    I'm James.

    Default

    Never heard an SPU but intrigued how they sound.
    Main system : VPI Scout 1.1 / JMW 9T / 2M Black / Croft 25R+ / Croft 7 / Heco Celan GT 702

    Second System : Goldring Lenco GL75 / AT95EX / Pioneer SX590 / Spendor SP2

  4. #4
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

    Posts: 9,302
    I'm Andrew.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
    Never heard an SPU but intrigued how they sound.
    You'll not get the same analytical playback as the 2M black or Cadenza black, it's more than that. It's extremely hard to put your finger on. Once heard never forgotten. I now own 3 SPU's a mono, silver Meister v2, and the Royal N. All add a little something extra to playback.
    SS
    CD Teac VRDS25X(Audiotuned) DECK 1210 Mat Crystal Audio Mods MN Base/Bearing/Platter+Ebony armboard Feet Isonoe PSU Paul Hynes SR7EHD-27XL/DCSXL Ag DC lead/3 Stage Regs/Recap PCB+No Pitch/Strobe/Light ARM SME V(Kondo Ag Rewire&Tags) MC Cadenza Black FGS CABLES Arm Yannis SPD-4 IC Yannis 222 Litz+Ag bullets Power WAR PRE ATC SCA2 SPEAKERS ATC 50ASL STANDS Atacama PHONO Sugden Masterclass PA4 SUT Ortofon ST80SE POWER PSAudio P10

    VALVE
    PRE
    Croft Epoch(Modded) AMP Sondex S100 (Modded) SPEAKERS Tannoy 15"MG+RFC Warwick cabs+ Ref XO + Batpure supertweeters DECK Garrard 301 Mat Teunto Bearings 401(Bastin) Plinth Bamboo Arms 3009/3012 PSU Eagle+Tachometer MC Ag Meister II/FGS + Ortofon SPU MONO CABLES Arm Yannis 420.5 Litz+ SpeakerPC Tripple C+WBT-0681 Ag IC Oyaide FTVS-510 AgWBT 0110Ag Phonostages Paradise(4 Box Mega-Modded) / Croft Musicmaker



  5. #5
    Join Date: Aug 2018

    Location: London Knightsbridge

    Posts: 414
    I'm Nari.

    Default

    Congratulations, you will certainly have many hours of pleasure with the SPU A95 I own four of them 2 that are used and two unused, I have been collecting spu cartridges for over 30 years now, and have a host of vintage models some with piggy back transformers and modern models including various golds and the stunning anniversary box set that was available in 2011. The box which has the SPU Classic, SPU Gold Reference, SPU 85th Anniversary and SPU 90th Anniversary is lovely. I like the gold from that set the most, the A95 is superb in its detail and the way deals with the bass and midrange integration one of the less fussy spu cartridges in my opinion. I have the Centuary which is also a very very fine cartridge, the spu cartridge that touches my heart the most is the Shindo spu, it has a almost ghostly quality that is truly seductive the midrange while sweet powerful has great transparency but not in the modern way of sounding thin and bleached. I think the A95 ranks very highly in the spu line up, setting up and using a spu can be challenging to say the least, the A95 glides along playing music proving great detail with a slight modern twist, spu ownership is very addictive as each and every model has there own charm and virtues.
    Most important and used Walker Black Diamond Etsuro Gold, Micro Seiki 8000mk2 Kondo special V12 Tiger Eye, Fidelity Research FR 66 Shindo spu, EMT 927, sme 312 aluminium. Fidelity research fr66, Sme 3012 mk1, Sme V, Ikeda 407 IT Sme Model 30/2/Dynavector 507 Kodo Beat Turntable Airtangent 10B modified Fidelity fr66s Etsuro Cartridge . Kondo Gakuoh Mk1 powers G70 Pre,Audio Tekne TFA-8695PCS pre Audio Tekne TEA 8695 Phono. Lfd Battery Phono Stage heavily custom rebuilt by Dr Richard Bews, Tharx Phono Stage. Lfd Master Dual Biamp power amp, Lfd Anniversary master preamp. Shindo Latour Field Coil. Rockport Cygnus Biamped, Voigt Domestic Corner Horns/ Feastex Fildcoils. LFD Custom silver Ribbons. LFD Diamond Vipor Mk2 interconnects, Lfd Golden Cobra interconnect. Koetsu blue lace mono special order, Koetsu burma jade mono special order.

  6. #6
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Norwich

    Posts: 2,814
    I'm Hugo.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Vrajbasi View Post
    Congratulations, you will certainly have many hours of pleasure with the SPU A95 I own four of them 2 that are used and two unused, I have been collecting spu cartridges for over 30 years now, and have a host of vintage models some with piggy back transformers and modern models including various golds and the stunning anniversary box set that was available in 2011. The box which has the SPU Classic, SPU Gold Reference, SPU 85th Anniversary and SPU 90th Anniversary is lovely. I like the gold from that set the most, the A95 is superb in its detail and the way deals with the bass and midrange integration one of the less fussy spu cartridges in my opinion. I have the Centuary which is also a very very fine cartridge, the spu cartridge that touches my heart the most is the Shindo spu, it has a almost ghostly quality that is truly seductive the midrange while sweet powerful has great transparency but not in the modern way of sounding thin and bleached. I think the A95 ranks very highly in the spu line up, setting up and using a spu can be challenging to say the least, the A95 glides along playing music proving great detail with a slight modern twist, spu ownership is very addictive as each and every model has there own charm and virtues.
    Do you know what differentiates the Shindo SPU from Ortofon's regular models? From your comments, I think maybe the current SPU Wood A is cut from the same cloth as the Shindo - a thing of intense musical beauty which comes as a bit of a shock given its very ordinary (basic, even) specifications.

    SPUs are lovely things and Adam is a lucky chap to have that SPU A95

  7. #7
    Join Date: Aug 2018

    Location: London Knightsbridge

    Posts: 414
    I'm Nari.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Ammonite Acoustics View Post
    Do you know what differentiates the Shindo SPU from Ortofon's regular models? From your comments, I think maybe the current SPU Wood A is cut from the same cloth as the Shindo - a thing of intense musical beauty which comes as a bit of a shock given its very ordinary (basic, even) specifications.

    SPUs are lovely things and Adam is a lucky chap to have that SPU A95
    As with most of these things shindo were very secretive, I have the SPU WOOD A again a lovely thing for me does not quite have the overall ghostly quality of the shindo which is breathtaking, the best component of the shindo record playing system is the cartridge in my opinion. I do like the stunning wood A as I love the century.
    Last edited by Vrajbasi; 29-05-2019 at 11:02.
    Most important and used Walker Black Diamond Etsuro Gold, Micro Seiki 8000mk2 Kondo special V12 Tiger Eye, Fidelity Research FR 66 Shindo spu, EMT 927, sme 312 aluminium. Fidelity research fr66, Sme 3012 mk1, Sme V, Ikeda 407 IT Sme Model 30/2/Dynavector 507 Kodo Beat Turntable Airtangent 10B modified Fidelity fr66s Etsuro Cartridge . Kondo Gakuoh Mk1 powers G70 Pre,Audio Tekne TFA-8695PCS pre Audio Tekne TEA 8695 Phono. Lfd Battery Phono Stage heavily custom rebuilt by Dr Richard Bews, Tharx Phono Stage. Lfd Master Dual Biamp power amp, Lfd Anniversary master preamp. Shindo Latour Field Coil. Rockport Cygnus Biamped, Voigt Domestic Corner Horns/ Feastex Fildcoils. LFD Custom silver Ribbons. LFD Diamond Vipor Mk2 interconnects, Lfd Golden Cobra interconnect. Koetsu blue lace mono special order, Koetsu burma jade mono special order.

  8. #8
    Join Date: Jul 2011

    Location: Northamptonshire

    Posts: 1,914
    I'm Peter.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by WESTLOWER View Post
    So after much badgering and penny pinching, I have managed to prise away Petrat's very sparsely used, Ortofon SPU A95 Anniversary.
    Ah, that's where I left it ... was looking for it this afternoon! Can I have it back now, please?

  9. #9
    Join Date: Mar 2016

    Location: Barnet, london UK

    Posts: 2,146
    I'm Adam.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by petrat View Post
    Ah, that's where I left it ... was looking for it this afternoon! Can I have it back now, please?
    Who are you? What do you want with me?!
    "lack of passion is fatal"


    Vinyl: Thorens TD-124mk2 / SME-312 Aluminium 'special' / SME M2-9R / STEREO: Etsuro Urushi Cobalt / Shure M3D / Ortofon SPU A95 / Cartridge Man Music Master / Shure - SC35C (US) / SAEC C3 MC MONO: Miyajima Zero B 0.7mil mono / Miyajima Premium 1.0 / Amps & SUTs: Radford STA25 mk3 / AD Audio 'Satchmo2' pre & LCR phono / Hashimoto HM-7 SUT / ETR-MONO SUT Digital: Audio Note 4.1 (with DAC5 upgrades) DAC / Roon / Tidal Speakers: Tannoy 12" MGs' in RFC custom 'Rutland' Cabinets with RFC crossovers / Tannoy ST-100 Super Tweeters Cables: LFD Grainless phono / RFC Mercury / Duelund DCA16GA tinned copper / Kimber 12TC / SW1X Audio Design USB-SPdif / Duelund DCA20GA interconnects / SW1X Audio SPDIF Aero 6 / Mains Power Conditioner / Box Furniture rack / Audiodesk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner / a very beautiful & understanding Wife!

  10. #10
    Join Date: Mar 2014

    Location: KY - Scotland

    Posts: 5,465
    I'm Mike.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by WESTLOWER View Post
    Who are you? What do you want with me?!

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