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new Nagaoka MP-500 - first impressions

  • Thread starter Thread starter DC
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Hey Kazu are you able to adjust the VTA on your Rega easily? I think that tonearm requires the use of shims to get the arm height just right? The MP500 stylus may be more sensitive to VTA than the MP200 cartridge you had before
 
Hello Kazu
On both my MP110 and MP200, I had to put at least 30 hours of time before each cartridge full blossomed. The MP200 is a wonderful sound....I have to say the vocals on the Norah Jones clip is really nice with the MP500.

The cantilever on the MP500 I suspect is very sensitive to adjustments. I am using a Audio Technica OC9ML/II MC cartridge with microline stylus with boron cantilever and it is very delicate and very sensitive I have found to adjustments. I have really found the sweet spot by focusing the alignment to making sure the cantilever is well aligned.

Just some suggestions...thank you for the clips.
 
I the older Nagaoka MP-50. It came with an MP-30 stylus. I have been thinking about getting the MP-500 stylus for it. Pretty expensive though. More for the MP-500 stylus than I paid for the 50/30 combo new.
 
Yeah, the MP-50 is probably my all time favorite cartridge. I retired it after a few months when I found out how much the replacement styli cost. I doesn't help that Nagaoka specifies a stylus life of 500 hours. I'm not sure how accurate of an estimate that is, but I didn't want to find out. That cartridge sure is a sweetie!
 
Wow!

Well, I am going to "bump" this thread from 10 years ago (started 12 years ago!) to say that I still have this cartridge, and it's the one cartridge to have outlasted many others that have come in and gone out of the various kits and systems here. It's musical, tracks well, resolves well, and does nothing wrong - and does a lot right.

After the Rega RB-250 situation indicated above, it next lived on a Pro-Ject 9cc carbon-fibre tonearm on a RM-5.1SE turntable (also a great combo), and at this time it's mounted on a VPI Scout/JWM-9 tonearm and my eyes (ears?) have had no reason to wander for some time. (I've got a NOS stylus ready to go when needed, too.) I did a quick Google search just now and apparently it's still available, but a bit pricier than it was - oh my!

I've been a little out of the audio equipment merry-go-round for a few years (because reasons), but somehow just stumbled across this thread.

Fun stuff! :music:
 
kazuhito said:
To my beloved MP500!

About three weeks ago, I have upgraded from the beloved MP200 to MP500. I aligned my MP500 by Baerwald protractor on Rega RB303 arm as well MP200. It was very difficult for me to align on Rega arm precisely. Because MP500's line stylus tip was very tiny. And I set 1.50g VTF.

At first, I listened a classical music.
I was very disappointed. My MP200 was good sound much. Certainly the MP500 had a lot of sounds, it was very much detail than MP200. However, the sound lacked smoothness, very harder and dwindling. I could not listen to a classical music any more. I wanted to return MP500. I could not believe that everyone is praising the MP500.

Because I had known that the burn-in process is necessary, I heard the MP500 patiently a few hours everyday. And, from the time it was passed about two week (50 hours), MP500 has been changed to mild and gentle sound with much detail. When I clean the stylus, I could feel the cantilever became moving well.

Especially on Classical and Jazz Vocal, MP500 sounds well. Maybe, it will be good on Rock music after more burn-in process. I can say that I never return to the MP200.

I would like to review of my MP500 after more burn-in process again.
Thank you for looking.

Here is My MP500 Video
Click to expand...
When breaking in a cartridge, does the sound need to be on? I can’t imagine it would be; i.e., all the magic happens further down the line. Please advise.
 
Mr. Iv said:
When breaking in a cartridge, does the sound need to be on? I can’t imagine it would be; i.e., all the magic happens further down the line. Please advise.
Click to expand...

Hello! No, I think you're right - sound probably doesn't need to be on. The "breaking in" is more a mechanical phenomenon than an electrical one, so you could play some albums with the volume down (or system even powered off, I suppose) and be just as far ahead as if you were listening.

Now that said, part of the "fun" of all this is maybe hearing the difference(s) as it's happening, so listening to some albums during a "break-in period" could be just as interesting. :music:
 
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