Ortofon Samba (Yellow Ghost) first listening impressions

Vinyl Asylum

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The Samba is the direct replacement for the MC15II Super, according to Ortofon's literature. Ortofon says that the Samba betters the 15 in all major areas.
Prior to the Ghost, I had been using the Denon 103R for a couple of weeks. The 103 (either version) is hard to beat.
I played my usual reference LPs and right off the bat I noticed a much deeper and tighter bass response. I had to check my BBE 462 (used for very old or horrible recordings only) to make sure it was not on. That's probably the first time I heard a night and day difference in low end response from a cartridge.
Another thing I noticed was a very soft high end. That's quite a difference compared to most of my other moving coils, which are very extended/flat, but not bright in a bad way.
S and T sounds were reproduced perfectly. The best for me so far from a cartridge.
I think Ortofon has a winner with the Samba. At $225 it's a bargain among new design moving coils.
I used the 60 dB gain and 100 Ohm loading on my Sutherland Ph3D.

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Topic - Ortofon Samba (Yellow Ghost) first listening impressions - nightdoggy 08:38:59 04/21/07 (2)

Re: Ortofon Samba (Yellow Ghost) first listening impressions - krenzler 10:27:17 04/21/07 (1)

Sorry, my mistake - nightdoggy 14:58:08 04/21/07 (0)

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