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Who know anything about this needle?

I am playing now this CG-25 - my new Ortofon replacement. This new cartridge is turn out to be “MONO CG 25 Di”. It looks and feel completely different and this CG-25 is what I called the TRUE mono cartridge. It has one single coil with a single pair of contacts. So, it is not the regular SPU cartridge strapped in mono setting.

This CG-25 is heavier and has a half of output of SPU MONO. However, the differents on the output voltage is not auditable and I use the same “clicks” on my preamp. According to Ortofon the CG-25 has more reasonable 2R of internal DCR and should be loaded into >100R. I drive CG-25 into the no-step-up, directly to my two stages, penthod-input, air-cap phonocorrector, the very same that I used for the SPU MONO, and use the very same arm and the same all the rest settings.

To my surprise it sounds like the CG-25 is actually even better then SPU MONO. It has SCIENTIFICALLY less surface nose then I had with SPU MONO, although the SPU MONO have it way less then stereo cartridges. It looks like the CG-25 has less “upperbass forwardness” then the SPU MONO. Is it due to the differents of the internal impedance (100Rvs 2R) or because any other reasons I do not know but it all together sounds more “compiled” tonally.

The CG-25 does sound slightly sharper and less lush then SPU MONO. Certainly I do make a correction that this cartridge is juts out of box.  I remember how the SPU MONO sounded brand new and the CG-25 is more vigor. Probably it is because the CG-25 has way shorter cantilever that reduces the compliance of the cartridge. As the result, my tonearm “sounds” with less effective mass for the given cartridges. Anyhow, I find the this change is somehow beneficial at this point and my new CG-25 has less “Ortofonissness” and more sounds like a normal neutral cartridge  (closer to Shelter?)

In any case, I did not play with masses, VTFs, VTAs and with anything else, letting this needle to run for a few days and settle down. Certainly it is a slightly different animal then the SPU MONO, still very pleasant but with less attitude. I will let know how it will work out for me.

Regarding the SPU MONO: Thanks again, Brian. Sometimes later I will contact the European guys with fixing my killed in actions SPU MONO. Who knows, perhaps in a week or two I will not have any motivation to do so….

So, I hope…
The Cat

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