The Nagaoka MP 110 now has about 30 hours under its belt. I had documented in an earlier post on this thread how I had to go through quite a bit of contortion to get the left and right channels to sing in unison. It was a good investment in time and money to separate the left and right volume controls. I thought I'll pen down my impressions of the cartridge.
Tonal/harmonic balance is spot on. There is no part of the spectrum that stands out at the cost of other parts. The lows, mids and highs are well balanced. It's not mid-range spot lighted like some cartridges. The bass and the treble are equally represented.
Imaging is a wee bit forward than other cartridges I've heard, but not by much. It's certainly not shouty or tries to grab your attention in a bad way. It's just that it feels like you're seated some rows ahead of your customary favourite seat in a concert hall. The solution is easy - simply move back your listening chair by a foot or so (where the room allows) and you're back to hearing the music the way you're accustomed to.
For a cartridge of its cost, it is quite resolving of details in the music, though it can do better in resolving micro dynamic nuances in music. But then much pricier cartridges too have this shortcoming.
It is very good at placing the various instruments and voices in their specific places in the musical scape, especially in the lateral left-right dimension. Ability to delineate depth is, I feel, directly related to ability to resolve micro dynamic nuances, so a shortcoming in the later shows up as a shortcoming of the former character. This is not say that the cartridge presents everything as though painted on a flat wall. In fact it does a good job. I'm being demanding here because of the cartridges other sterling qualities. A corollary of this capability is its ability to identify and follow the different strands of loud and complex music as identifiable strands.
It reacts to dynamic changes in the music with an ever-present sense of drive. However, don't expect it to do wild and startling dynamic swings like some better cartridges.
During quiet, late night listening sessions it is a pleasure to listen to classical piano recitals and hear the decay of notes that one hears in a live performance at a quiet venue. Pleasurable too is hearing the myriad tonal variations of a virtuoso soloist in your favourite violin concerto.
There are three standout features worth mentioning, namely, its fantastic low noise, a very sweet treble and a drive that propels the music forward.
It has an uncanny ability to suppress surface noise, ticks and pops in poor records, much better than any cartridge I've heard. It does this without rolling off the highs. In many cartridges these are mutually exclusive properties but not so on the MP 110. This feature alone elevates it very high up in my esteem. After all, who doesn't own records with irritating pops and ticks?
The second standout feature is its sweet highs. Cymbals, hi hats, triangles, and other instruments that play above 5 kHz sound resolved and smooth. My personal reference for treble reach and extension and general treble sweetness and smoothness is the Decca London Super Gold cartridge. I was taken aback to hear such fluid treble from the MP 110. No, it's not the equal of the London Decca but who knows what more hours could bring forth? The MP 110 treble is certainly the equal, or better than, the venerable Denon DL 103 (not entirely correct to compare them as they play on two different turntables with different phono preamps, but that's what I currently have for direct comparison). Unfortunately I use fixed headshell tonearm on my Lenco L75 TT on which I have mounted the Nagaoka, so quick cartridge swaps are difficult. But if fickle audio memory serves, the Nagaoka plays better in every meaningful way than the last cartridge I had mounted on the Lenco (a Denon DL 160 HOMC). I also have a dim memory of the sound of the Shure V15 Mark III and M97xE mounted on the same TT. The Nagaoka has a forceful sound, quite bold and fairly dynamic, that the M97xE or V15 lacked. I don't have the M97xE anymore but still have the V15 so I'll mount it again at some later date to compare their sonics. I also retain some sonic memory of the very popular Ortofon 2M Red cartridge (albeit on another TT, phono preamp, amp and speakers). The Nagaoka leaves the 2M Red biting the dust. There is simply no comparison.
The third standout feature is it has an ever-present sense of taking the music forward. It's certainly not a dull cartridge.
Some caveats are in order: the Nagaoka MP 110 spec sheet does not mention the recommended capacitive loading. Various audio forums variously suggest anything spanning from 110 pF to 600 pF. I haven't fully experimented though I went as far as 600 pF and as low as 125 pF but I seem to like 440 pF loading. For resistive loading, I use 47K and 68K Ohms interchangeably, preferring the higher value more. Above 68K, things turn bright. 68K has just the right amount of liveliness without degrading into etched bright sound, while 47K can make many records sound duller than they should be. I also use a slightly positive VTA. I'll probably experiment further with VTA after more hours, to see if I can fine tune the tonal balance better (not that the current tonal balance is bad).
Do consider this cartridge for your next upgrade.
