250 Pro vs. 250 Upgrade Review

[Confused]

Thanks all. FWIW, I've asked Devialet customer support to take a few measurements of my 250 Pro's phono stage when it goes in to get the Core Infinity board (going to wait until January to do this so I have my unit for the holidays). They haven't said no yet but I'm not hopeful. I would think that this would be an easy way for them to get some data on a particular unit that appears to be not performing to spec.

Still trying to figure out what a very good to excellent cartridge would be that would work well going directly into Devialet's phono stage (no SUT's, etc.). For the reasons here, MM options don't work (I have a pretty good MM cartridge right now) and low output MC's appear to present problems. Any ideas, preferably in the Ortofon (Cadenza Bronze?), Dynavector (XX2-Mk2?), or Soundsmith camp as those are the brands my dealer carries and so, will give me the best chance for a reasonable trade-in?

In short, I rather (if possible) put my $ to a better quality cartridge that is well matched to the Devialet phono stage than get an external phono stage or SUT.

A while back I attended the 'Ortofon Cartridge Experience tour' when they visited Oxford Audio.  I think what I posted then might be relevant to your question here.  See link below:

https://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?...t=windfeld

You mentioned the Cadenza Bronze in an earlier post.  On paper, the Bronze looks like a good choice for a Devialet with an output of 0.4mV.  During the Ortofon demo the Bronze was a cartridge that I liked a lot, it was one of the more natural and 'listenable' cartridges that were demonstrated that day.  I actually found myself thinking of buying a bronze as a second cartridge, the reason being that I have a lot of old vinyl and some of it is not in the best condition or of the best original quality anyway.  So my thinking was that the Bronze might be a decent sounding but also slightly 'forgiving' cartridge for my lesser vinyl.  The problem is that as we moved through the Ortofon range, listening to ever more expensive cartridges, I thought 'jump' from the Cadenza Bronze to the Black was one of the bigger jumps of the day, the Black to me sounded some way ahead in terms of detail and resolution.  The Black has a lower output at 0.33mV, so will have slightly higher hiss versus the Bronze.  However, irrespective of the hiss, I would definitely take the Black over the Bronze.  I think the Black has the kind of detail, resolution and attack that the Devialet deserves.

The Cadenza Black is of course a very expensive cartridge.  Further down the Ortofon range I was extremely impressed as to just how good the Quintet range sounded, definitely the 'bang for buck' choice, and they give far less away to the Cadenza than you might imagine.