Mike Oldfield - Return To Ommadawn - Vinyl - Half Speed Mastered - Abbey Road - Nagaoka MP-500

[@rtfly193]

More videos with the MP-500 please!

[@MC-jv6fs]

yes!

[@HiViNywschannel]

Hi Brother, great production again!!! I like how you spent the dedicated effort and time to piece in the introduction and graphic plays 💪😄👍🎶🎵🎶🎶🎶

[@HiFisquarepants]

Thank you Ian, that's very kind of you. Glad you like it! 😀🎼🎶🎙🪕🥁

[@bedrosdaoudian8927]

Hi Ian ... Great to see you here? What happened to your channel...? Long time no news?

[@pointsbeingmade7996]

Ian and hifisquare top notch!

[@chrisscheri9566]

Yes vinyl is back! Hooray. Really enjoyed this music and the video... and the fact that it was done to a real metronome. :) Very clean recording too...... with depth and clarity.

[@HiFisquarepants]

Thanks! :) Mike tried to recreate the atmosphere and the sound of the original 1975 Ommadawn; all acoustic instruments without synthesizers :)

[@chrisscheri9566]

@@HiFisquarepants Wish he had been doing that in 1983.... Flute!... He did all his wind instruments with a Fairlight, I think.... at least live he did that...... Much prefer the real instruments.

[@HiFisquarepants]

@@chrisscheri9566 Yep, he was one of the pioneers using Fairlight...I guess it was something almost inevitable those days. Anyway, Return to Ommadawn is good news for those of us who miss those days ;)

[@Eleventhearlofmars]

HiFisquarepants Peter Gabriel used it to excellent effect along with Kate Bush, on their own projects.

[@pawekowalczyk5768]

Amazing, stunning and all other meanings of masterpiece 😍 i love this album, you can hear, no, not only hear but also feel every note.

[@luisrodriguez8639]

Sounds excellent this cartridge, easy on the ears

[@leethomas2155]

Every Mike Oldfield album has an absolute musical peak for me, and for Return To Ommadawn it's the part at 8:43 - 9:15 in this video. Thanks for uploading this.

[@markielinhart]

Mike Oldfield’s final remark says it all about vinyl does it not. And you have done him proud...✌️

[@TheHammerofDissidence]

Insanely great sounding. Wow!

[@bedrosdaoudian8927]

Hi Hifi! What a great video...! Superb sound as usual... Congrats on the Nagaoka MP-500! What made you want to jump on board with the Nagaoka MP-500? Would be great if you can do a comparison video of the 2M Black against the MP-500... also adding the AT VMN 540 ML or 740 ML would make it the ultimate comparison of the Giant MMs !

[@juandv930722]

yesss, por favor esto seria muy bueno

[@ConnahJay]

Yes this would be epic!

[@tomwebb7091]

This is THE best MM cart ever made. No other MM gets near it. The tonality, the richness the musicality are all off the scale. Yet so is the price! In the UK they want £750 for it. This is quality MC territory. I have a hard time justifying this cart while the AT33PTGii exists which one can run fully balanced through a range of ProJect phono stages if ones lucky enough to have a balanced out TT (Project X2B, X8B, Teac 5BB, Thorens 1500 and 1600). If only Nag made a low output MC version of this cart id be all over it!

[@gerardoromano3436]

Hi, It´s almost MC, It´s a Permaloy not a Moving Magnet Cart. I bought It 10 years ago, paid 300 Us$, bought a spare stylus but never used, It has the original stylus, 10 years and tracks like the first day, I heard that Nagaoka stylus doesn´t last very long, mine may have 2000 to 3000 hours of use at least and still tracks very well, no IGD, now prices have gone to the roof 750 GBP is a lot but It depends on the use and the system you have, If you have a great system It´s easy to justify 750 GBP for a superb cart like this IMHO. Oh It matches any tonearm I have, low, mid and high mass, no other cart does that. Cheers and enjoy your hobby.

[@cesarmaupome]

Aún a través de KZbin, la claridad, contundencia, transparencia y musicalidad es imbatible. Ciertamente, tus trabajos son magistrales. Poseo el CD de esta obra.... Y ni por asomo es igual, y eso....a través de (ya lo mencioné y debo repetirlo) KZbin. Mil gracias.

[@theman36]

Stunning

[@recyclebin4148]

superb!

[@richsherman3673]

Worth every penny! I wasted $850 in 1996 on a Linn K18-II that was just an Audio Technica made under Linn specs. Boy did I throw out $850. The Linn discontinued the replacement stylus for thew K18-II about 5 years after. I am enjoying a Audio Technica AT-440 MLB. It has lots of HF energy, but the Bass is light. My next purchase will be a Nagaoka.

[@AboveEmAllProduction]

lol it sounds better than anything ive ever heard. deep and perfectly defined in the full range; incredible non-phasey stereo seperation

[@MyCoalField]

Great clip. thanks for sharing.

[@analogaudiorules1724]

Can you buy a microline or a microridge for these? Carts like these should offer such an option as nothing tracks better, mcirolines are shaped exactly like the lathe stylus that etched the master disc to press the records, i ask as they are the best at the tracking of the grooves and provide the least ware on the grooves as more of the stylus makes contact with them and it also will get deeper in the grooves as well for better highend response unlike other designs.... so do you know if they make one for these? Good video.

[@HiFisquarepants]

This stylus tracks phenomenally... It's a super fine polished line contact nude diamond with a boron cantilever. It's top notch in this regard...

[@yogi9631]

Just brilliant ..... barely a speck of dust on your LPs. you are the absolute perfectionist/collector. Any chance to upload MOONLIGHT SHADOW ????

[@christopherward5065]

Amazing I’ve never heard him speak before.I guess the original version of the album is out of copyright or no longer pays royalties. So many artists are having to go back on tour and re-record 50-year-old albums. The digital versions will be easier to make and not degrade because the building of the track doesn’t degrade a tape at the same time. He seems like he enjoyed doing what he loves!

[@osomqueeuescuto2276]

Amazing 😮👏👏👏👏🙌

[@antoniofernandez-up8ep]

Suena fantástico, y eso que es KZbin.......

[@ConnahJay]

I have the same headshell, what tool do you use for unplugging the headshell wires when swapping cartridges?

[@MusicAndVinyl]

"1975 mode" ;o) The interview bits were good to hear, as was the music - that Nag is a classy performer!

[@HiFisquarepants]

1975 mode indeed 🎶🎵 He tried to recreate the atmosphere and the sound of the original 1975 Ommadawn. That is to say: all acoustic instruments without synthesizers. They're all real instruments being played by the man himself; his fingers either on keyboards, strings, holding sticks or his mouth playing things, it's a very human thing. It's not a machine, it's an actual real person playing all the instruments. He didn't even clean the sound and you can hear little mistakes, clicks of his fingers, his breathing...he could have chop them out but he left all those imperfections because he thinks that gives it carachter :)

[@Eleventhearlofmars]

HiFisquarepants your `h’ seems to have moved 5 places to many to the right on your very last word lol. 👍🏼😂

[@Eleventhearlofmars]

@aikineo 😃

[@AlexVinyl1974]

Hi, do you find improvements with this new cartridge alignment?

[@gerardoromano3436]

Hi do you still have the Nagaoka MP500 cart ?

[@HiFisquarepants]

Yep 👍

[@cabasse_music]

i have an mp200 on my mitsub lt-30, and love it (after getting around to rewiring the signal path with kab superflex low capacitance) - i plan to get the mp500 stylus once it wears out, even if the body is not quite as good

[@cabasse_music]

i have done this two months ago and it finally arrived from japan last week. i think i' m going to start making some hifispongepants style videos now, it sounds fantastic

[@scottspencer4018]

@@cabasse_music I added the MP500 stylus to my MP150 body a few weeks ago, and am thrilled with the result. Improved clarity and separation. It sounds amazing.

[@ConnahJay]

@@cabasse_music So the 500 stylus fits on the 200 body and sounds good?!?

[@ConnahJay]

@@scottspencer4018 Does it sound good, I want to try but I thought it wouldn't work. I have a MP-200

[@scottspencer4018]

@@ConnahJay Yes. It's fits well, works well, and sounds pretty incredible on my rig. Will replace with another JN-P500 when this one wears out.

[@utub1473]

Not sure if you have them, but if you do.... how does the MP200 compare to the 2m bronze and the VM740ML and VM750SL

[@HiFisquarepants]

I have the Bronze, the 740ML and this Nagaoka. Their characters differ from one another completely. AT and 2m lie towards the bright and "cold" side whereas the sound of the Nagaoka is more relaxed, warm and soft.

[@rollingtroll]

Also the 2M is a completely different compliance, it would never match the same arm as the MP series. That said, Ortofon until you spend 1000 bucks just isn't a great idea. And Shure/Stanton, in my opinion, can be forgotten. There's so much good stuff out there now, why buy the big brands everyone buys, right? Nagaoka is amazing value for money, Goldring is doing a really good job and AT's AT-VM95ML is an insane cart for the money. And then there's still classics like the Denon DL-110 and the Dynavector 10x5. No cart works well if you don't set it up properly though, and first you have to match it to your arm. You can't put a cart with a supple stylus suspension (like the 2m) on a heavy arm. It won't work and it will in the end shorten your stylus life massively (it'll just snap off if the mismatch is big enough).

[@TheWretchedWorld]

@@rollingtroll Very true. I laugh every time people do stuff like mounting a dl103 onto a rega rb series arm or something like a shure v15 on a long heavy tonearm. Its common for people to blind buy a cartridge without knowing the mass of their tonearm.

[@HiFisquarepants]

@@TheWretchedWorld You're perfectly right. Needless to say, my opinion is based on the best tonearm/stylus combination. Anyway, I don't trust the numbers given by the manufacturer because sometimes they're not correct. I use a couple of test records in order to find out where the resonance frequency points at in every particular case. That procedure helps me, along with my ears, dedice which the best combination is. I came to the conclusion that the Nagaoka compliance is a bit higher than stated in the manual. In any case, I stick by my previous words, the Nagaoka provides a much more relaxed sound tan the other two. It reminds me of the Grado Prestige series (after all they're both moving iron carts), although this MP-500 tracks much better.

[@TheWretchedWorld]

@@HiFisquarepants You are definitely right about manufacturers getting specs wrong. Its not just on the cartridge side of things. Its also with tonearm specs. My Yamaha GT2000s tonearm is supposedly 22 grams effective mass. I disassembled it to rewire and believe me I've held tone arms with effective mass of over 20 grams and they felt much heavier. Safest bet these days honestly is to go out and buy cartridges that suit medium mass tonearms. That way even if the specs quoted by the manufacturer are wrong you probably won't be that far out of the ideal range if the arm is too light or too heavy. I would love to try the MP-500 on my GT2000. Something tells me it will be a killer combination.

[@MrVinylObsessive]

What about the Jelco arm? I suspect you still prefer the old Technics, uh? 😄 Nice sound , by the way!

[@HiFisquarepants]

The Hana/Jelco/1200MK2 combo is not yet operational because I need the 5 pin din to rca connector. The one I was using was lent to me by a friend. Anyway, I've ordered a new cable and hopefully my next video here will feature the Hana/Jelco combo ;)

[@lshin80]

@@HiFisquarepants Didn't the Hana get along with the Technics arm?

[@HiFisquarepants]

@@lshin80 Yep, that was my "secret" plan B for the Santana rip 😏 but you've gone ahead 😁 Smart boy...Now it won't be a surprise though 😕

[@DCDi34]

What is that mat you are using?

[@ThresholdZhor]

I find the Goldring and Nava better

[@ivanroman7291]

Are these ATC monitors?

[@HiFisquarepants]

I bet they are