Ortofon Cadenza Bronze Moving Coil Cartridge

Positive Feedback ISSUE 51 September/October 2010
Reviewed by John Hoffman

“…The Cadenza Bronze is certainly a top flight cartridge, and its performance reflects Ortofons substantial engineering resources and manufacturing experience…
…Cadenza Bronze is an excellent tracking cartridge, and its ability to minimize surface noise will be an attribute that can be appreciated by any perspective owner….

…The Bronze certainly has the ability to extract all the fine detail contained in a recording, and excels at all the audiophile approved tasks. Performers are clearly defined, tonal balance is evenly reproduced, and dynamic contrasts are faithfully recreated. The touch of warmth that Ortofon have infused into the design, results in a cartridge with an easy going nature, which invites a person to listen for hours on end… “

STYLUS RAKE ANGLE (SRA)

With a complex stylus shape like the Replicant 100, there must be special attention paid to positioning the diamond in the groove.

The Stylus Rake Angle (SRA – see figure) is very important to the performance of the Replicant 100 stylus, and the long contact surface (the sharp edge) of the diamond should be almost perpendicular to the record surface when viewed from the side.  The angle between the record surface and the cantilever is close to 23 degrees when SRA is 90 degrees.

A perfect starting point is to set the tonearm parallel to the record surface and to use the recommended tracking force. The contact surface will be close to perpendicular to the record surface with this setting. The SRA can now gradually and carefully be changed be adjusting VTF and, if necessary, the tonearm height. The target should be an SRA around 92 degrees, determined by the listening experience. In other words, the point of the stylus should point slightly towards the tonearm base.