Ortofon HMC 30

[adragon]

Hi to all!

I have a Thorens TD 160 B MKII with a Mayware Formula IV (or perhaps... V) tonearm. On this tonearm is fitted an Ortofon MC25 FL in new condition (~200-300 hours at most).
I am using a legendary Musical Fidelity A1000 (the also called Super Pre - Main Class A) and I love this integrated amplifier with its super sound, except its not equal MC phono stage...
Sometimes I am using a pair of T-5 Ortofon's little Step Up Transformers...

(Further more I have a Musical Fidelity A5 CD with very good sound and a pair of the famous greek speakers called Hermes version 1)

The Ortofon MC25 FL is a very good sounding cartridge, accurate, not edgy (!!!), with plenty of bass, good 3D image from the speakers and back.
I also have tried on this system the lower cost but very approved Ortofon MC 15 MKII Super with about the same Ortofon sound (perhaps a little smoother and not so dynamic as the 25).
From the Ortofon's list I have heard (on a Technics 1210) the MC 20 Supreme, the MC 30 Supreme and the Rohmann...
These three cartridges also have the well known Ortofon's sound, which sound is there with any of all of the Ortofon's cartridges I' ve heard.
The difference is, that as the cartridge cost increases, you can find (some) more details, refinement and speed!
This speed is the big improvement of Rohmann against all other...

To make the story sort, I decided to hear on my Thorens one more Ortofon in a good price: the HMC 30!
This was bought just now from ebay for a cost of ~260 USD including shipping.
I think this is a good price, but, as I am waiting for this new cartridge, I would like to hear some of your opinions and feelings about this HMC 30.
As I found some of you in Vinylengine Forum have experience with this cartridge and I would be very happy, if I would read complete comments about this.

Thank you in advance

Antonios Dragonas
Athens
Greece

[adragon]

I have to fix the price of this HMC...
My PC's bloody keyboard stacks to some buttons and the typing deamon made the cost 260 USD instead of the actual 360 USD, which is of course an excellent price!
Especially now, that I' ve heard this cartridge for about 10 hours and I am very happy!
It has a low profile boby exactly the same with the MC 10/20/30 Super MK II Series with gold boby and black upper plate (the MC 20/30 Super MK II had black body with gold upper plate).
The overall performance of the HMC 30 in these hours of playing is quite super!Better than the Ortofon MC 25 FL, the Ortofon MC 20 Supreme, even better than the MC 30 Supreme (but this is not tested on my system, only compared on a Technics 210 MKII for a while).
There are very balanced frequencies over all the spectrum, very detailed sound, remarkable high speed in dynamics and very dynamic sound, extreme and powerfull bass (when it is written on the disk), perfect percussion and wind instruments and real voices!
The only think I have to mension (but not to blame!) is that in some kind of music, especially with sound effects written to the disk, the extremely etailed sound may set some questions i this is right or not!
In such music pieces the HMC 30 looks like a very detailed CD player (but of course sweeter and soft sound).
The big Orchestral Symphonic Music (Telarc's One Night at the Bald Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition, Reference Recordings' Symphonie Fantastique) is quite real, as hearing in the Music Hall and cleary better in the details compared to the CDs (especially in the sector of the bass!!!)
I think this is the best ortofon sound I' ve heard to date, except perhaps the Rohmann' sound (very analytical but perhaps less homogeneous)

I' ll come back with more hearing results.

Antonios Dragonas

[adragon]

More sound results:

There is an interesting change in my system!
An Ortofon MCA 76 has arrived and now I play the HMC through this MC pre-preamplifier and the MM input of the preamlifier Luxman C-02...
With this combination there even more bass than with the previous connection (through the MC/100 Ohm input of the Luxman C-02)
The MCA 76 is a real high end device and the made quality is superb (just look an inside foto of this!)
The last modification is the replacement of the tonearm's internal cables with new pure silver cables!!!
After the battle of the full disassembly of my Thorens TD 160 Super and the Jelco tonearm (this tonearm is another full story!!!) and the insertion of the new cables and the proper soldering, I took more better sound!!!
More details, even more speed, astonishing bass, everything is (one more time) new and better than before the change...
After all these years of vinyl hearing (through the same speakers) I definitely hear the best sound ever!!!

The MAGIC combination is:
Ortofon HMC 30
AK LABS pure silver tonearm internal cables + Van Den Hul 502 to the MC input
Ortofon MCA 76 as MC preamplifier
Van Den Hul 102 MKIII (50 cm) from MCA 76 to MM input
Luxman C-02 as MM/RIAA and preamplifier
Luxman M-03 as power amplifier
Van den Hul Magnum speakers cable
Audio Spectrum Hermes v1 (4 ways floor stand, with SEAS units, cone 10΄΄ for bass, 3.5΄΄ DOME midrange, 1΄΄ dome twetter, 3/4΄΄ tinanium dome supertwetter)

Antonios Dragonas

[Blue Shadow]

I have recent experience with the MC-20 and the MC-30 as well as an MCA-76 now in the house. I really liked the MC-30 so if the HMC sounds like the MC you have got one fine cartridge.

The MC-30 was a borrowed unit on a universal headshell so it started on the Technics SL-1600II I keep for this reason. Since the unit was a longer term loaner, I put it on my Fidelity Research FR-64s where it truly shined.

The MCA-76 has the old, tired, unreliable Frako caps in it so it got a complete recap. I used Nichicon audio quality caps in the unit and replaced the tantalum caps while I was at it. No audio testing to report as yet, but it works and sounds good.

[13oots2]

I think that the old Ortofon step-ups are very under appreciated, I have the lower MCA-10 and have been very impressed with it's performance with my AT OC9 II and Denon DL-103. It certainly blows away my Musical Fidelity 3B's built in MC stage and that is supposed to be quite highly thought of. I really like the point that the MCA-10 is battery powered which I assume makes for lower noise.

[abril]

battery powered which I assume makes for lower noise.

Not necesarily,many years ago I had an Ortofon MC15 which I fed through a Lentek pre into a Hafler DH101,the Lentek frankly I found rather noisy.

[David S]

This is the under rated Cartridge or not many people aware on it for its quality sound, and other than the sound the built quality also very good.

1, Solid aluminium body.

2, Ortofon FG II stylus.

3, Very good trackability ( tracking ability )

4, Pure silver coil.

[adragon]

Good morning

@Blue Shadow
Have you heard your recaped MCA???
I hesitated to proceed to recap with Nichicon caps in the place of Frakos, because the Nichicons have different size and there was need for changes on the board!!!

@David
Are you sure tha the HMC 30 has pure silver coils???

@all
Some day I'll narrate the full story of my (extrasuper!!!) Jelco tonearm!!!

Antonios Dragonas

[Blue Shadow]

I used radial caps to replace the axials in a row. They stand up and can even be situated in a straight line.

I need to have the boyz over to have a listen. We have 2-Musical Fidelity head amps (20dB I guess) one MCA (34dB), and one each of the Crown DL-2 phono preamps, (30-50dB and 50-70dB) not counting the SP-9 phono stage, oh, and an SP-3a if needed. Cartridge here now are 0.07mV, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 2.6mV for the moving coil cartridges so the correct amount of amplification is available. Loading...that is the next thing to dig into. The head amps allow it and we all know we can parallel some resistors for a different load.

I'll get back to you when we get this sorted. Oh, I forgot, Mike Esoteric bought a Heed and that will be in the mix, too. Nice to have something that isn't from well into the last century to compare.

[David S]

Hi Antonios,

I didn’t found any official documents to say the coil is made by silver.

But look at the photo one is MC30Super, one is HMC30.

The MC30Super is pure silver coil, it shown in their ad brochure.

Cheers

DS

MC30Super



HMC30

[adragon]

David

Thanks a lot for the photos!!!

This is one real, technical and big reason that explains, why I hear super sound from this cartridge!!!!!!!!!

It blows into pieces the MC 30 Supreme and the famous Rohmann "has problems" comparing to the HMC!!! (If the Rohmann was so extremely higher cartridge, I could hear its superiority against the HMC, while using the same SUT pre-pre, the same preamp, same power amp, the same speakers and only the turntables are different: the Thorens TD 160 Super for HMC and an excellent condition Technics 1210 MKII for Rohmann)

The only difficulty for the HMC 30 is the need of the PROPER pre-pre/ mc phono stage...
The MC 30 Supreme and the Rohmann can play good with practical any pre-pre or mc phono stage... (Luxman C-02 SUT with fully adjustable load, Ortofon MCA-76, Ortofon T-5, Musical Fidelity A1000 mc phono stage)
The HMC denies to play with my Musical Fidelity A1000 mc phono stage!!!
And has not a "super" sound with the Ortofon T-5 SUT, but sings with the Lux C-02 SUT (100Ohm load) and the Ortofon MCA-76!!!)
This is the strange magic in hi-fi...
Do you agree?

Antonios Dragonas

[rich12]

The HMC 30 is a terrific cartridge. I used it to archive more than half my LP collection to DSD. I used it via an Audio Research PH3 SE (loaded at 50 ohms) on 3 different turntables - VPI Aries, Well Tempered Classic and Well Tempered Record Player. It was superb on all three. As already noted in the thread, it is severely underrated. Just a terrific cartridge.

[David S]

Antonios

I do agree your comments on HMC30, it works well in my ARC SP11 and diy all tube preamp include the tube head amp, didn’t try in SUT but will try it later.

To choose a MC is a little bit difficulty to match my ET-2 but this one is working fine and with extreme good bass.

For some of the MC I feel a little bass shy or tracking problem with ET-2 but in Pivot is perfect. This kind of phenomenon it doesn’t help much from the data sheet or the best RF applied.

DS

Another view of HMC30. Look at the light beam of the stylus, how beautiful of the cutting!

[adragon]

David!

You are the god of microscope!!!!!

Thanks a lot!

Antonios Dragonas