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REVIEW: Audio Technica OC-9 Phono Cartridge

Model: OC-9
Category: Phono Cartridge
Suggested Retail Price: $199
Description: Moving coil phono cartridge
Manufacturer URL: Audio Technica
Manufacturer URL: Audio Technica

Review by mark111 (A) on September 16, 2006 at 09:01:14
IP Address: 65.175.198.47
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for the OC-9


This review is for the ml/II.This is the best cartridge I have had in my system to date.I have had this cart in my setup for 6 months now.

I began looking for something to replace the Grado Silver after deciding I didn't want to deal with the silibance issues any longer.The Grado was a beautiful sounding cartidge otherwise.

The OC9 is a little heavy for the 8.5 gram effective mass arm on my 'table , but hasn't had any problems working in this arm.I had to set the cartridge as far back in the headshell as it would go to align it with the Turntable Basics alignment protractor,but it did fit.

The OC9 sounded great out of the box,though the treble had a bit of extra energy,and it improved somewhat in bass weight and the treble settled in after a couple of weeks.

This is a very balanced sounding cartridge.It has the most open sound I have encountered in my system.Surface noise is very low,no inner grove distortion,bass weight that betters the Grado(and that's saying something),incredible detail and separation between intruments and between individual voices in a chorus like I've never heard.I don't hear any odd artifacts or distortion with this cart.About the only thing the Grado did better was that it brought out the texture of instruments and voices a little better than the AT does.

At $285.00 on the web,this shows that sometimes you actually do get what you paid for.


Product Weakness: May be too heavy for lighter tonearms.
Product Strengths: Open,balanced,smooth,weighty bass,clean and undistorted.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Rotel RSX-1065 reciever
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): na
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Thorens TD-295-mkIV
Speakers: CV AT-12
Cables/Interconnects: generic
Music Used (Genre/Selections): mixed
Room Size (LxWxH): . x . x .
Room Comments/Treatments: .
Time Period/Length of Audition: 6 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): ma
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition): .




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Topic - REVIEW: Audio Technica OC-9 Phono Cartridge - mark111 09:01:14 09/16/06 (9)


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