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Handmade Vinyl record needles produced in Japan
NAGAOKA record needles are manufactured in Higashine City, Yamagata Prefecture, in the Tohoku region of Japan.
NAGAOKA's technical strength "MP" series record cartridge
Appearance and dimensional drawing
David LaPlante
2025-08-19 16:32:40
I have always used moving magnet phono cartridges. I recently came to the conclusion that new cartridges outperformed vintage ones, so I had been using an Audio Technica VM520 and was very happy with it. I had no reason to upgrade. Then I started reading and watching reviews of the Nagaoka MP-110. Reviewers all said how amazing this cartridge was and how I should run out and get one...today! I was intrigued. The deciding factor was that this is not a moving magnet cartridge (or moving coil). It is a moving permalloy. Basically, a cartridge with the high output of a MM but with the sonic improvements of a MC. The permalloy material is lighter so the stylus cantilever is not dragging heavy magnets around. The stylus is free to more accurately track the groove. The elliptical stylus is also .4x.7 instead of the usual .3x.7. This was described by some reviewers to provide better contact with the groove and sound better with older, worn records. OK....I'm in. I installed the MP-110 on my AR XA turntable, set the tracking force to the middle of the recommended range and adjusted the overhang to reduce tracking error. I decided to play only vintage records. No remastered stuff. From the very first play I was amazed. I had come to accept a certain amount of distortion, especially in the high end and a certain amount of reduced low end from records. It was just inherent in the medium, I thought. Well, this MP-110 cartridge proves that it can be eliminated, if not greatly reduced, at least. The sound from this cartridge is so clean and crisp you have to remind yourself that you are listening to a record. The low end is amazing on this cartridge. Acoustic guitars sound like real acoustic guitars with realistic low end. Every bit of overdrive and fuzz on electric guitars is there. Guitar effects like flanging, phase and Leslie are clearly reproduced. Terry Kath's Telecaster never sounded so good. I look forward to playing every record I own in the coming months (and years) and rediscovering the music contained in those grooves. If you have only used MM cartridges because you didn't want to spend the money on an expensive MC cartridge (or don't have a MC phono stage), do yourself a favor and try out this Nagaoka. You will not be disappointed.
Evan Schultz
2025-08-16 12:34:07
Look, I’m an idiot, okay? I had a really nice Ortofon Black that I straight up broke by dropping the tone arm and bending the stylus. (In this economy!) Long story short, I don’t have the money for a nice cartridge right now. But I didn’t want to go without records, so I bought this to hold me over. But after installing it myself (actually pretty easy to align because the front is so squared off) I realized it gets you pretty darn close to the quality of carts in the 600-800 range, at least for the kind of music I like—rock, pop, metal, hip-hop. Nothing audiophiley or fancy. Just solid, punchy bass and decent highs without being sharp. Not a lot of surface noise or other nonsense. Tracks well. Especially good for my vintage Motörhead records, which aren’t great recordings and weren’t cared for by the original owners. Is it as good as much more expansive carts? Not if you’re into 180 gram jazz. But if you’re a person trying to make rent, I don’t know why you wouldn’t get this.
OleMissFan
2025-08-06 16:08:53
Very nice sound for what you pay. Unlike the crap that LPGear.com sells, along with their terrible customer service, this product played well out of the box and hooked up very easily. The sound is solid for the price. Very nice entry level cartridge. Ill step up the 200 next time.Thank you
Kathleen Moniz
2025-08-05 11:24:52
I ordered this to put on my RT-85 to see what all the reviewers were squawking about with the RT-85N. And to be honest, being a person that "dipped his toe in the audiophile water", I feel this stylus is just another stylus. Did this make my records sound "warmer and forgiving with album flaws?" Maybe. It is not as bright as the Ortofon 2M Blue, but it's not that much different. The price is not too bad compared to others. But if I had to choose one, it would be the Ortofon. Still, it would sound great to most normal music listeners.
Daniel
2025-08-02 11:21:29
So easy to set up & use. Sounds terrific right from the jump!
Russ
2025-07-27 13:22:48
In terms of bang for your buck, the MP-110 hard to beat. It has a nice, balanced sound (warmer than many AT carts), good imaging, and tracks unusually well for a bonded elliptical stylus. I will occasionally get a bit of IGD on some records with this cartridge. One nice thing about the MP-100 through the MP-200 is that the body is the same shape. Supposedly the innards vary as you go up the line, but a MP-200 stylus will fit the MP-100 body and work just fine. So if you want to improve the tracking of the MP-110 even more, you can buy an JN-P150 or even a JN-P200 stylus as an upgrade sometime later without having to mount a brand new cartridge.The lego-block shape makes it easier to align this cartridge than others i have worked with. On some turntables (Technics in particular), the overhang requirements for certain alignments will make the cartridge dangle off the end of the head shell a fair amount. In some cases it can come up a bit short. The head shell that came in my kit is a bit longer than average with some weight taken out to compensate.
MonkeyBusiness
2025-07-02 17:43:48
Yes, it’s worth the extra cost. There is a world of difference in the quality of what comes out of my speakers after installing this cartridge. I wasn’t using an inexpensive cartridge prior to buying this one. There was about a $25 increase in price when bumping up a notch to this stylus and it is well worth it. More defined treble and smoother bottom end is literally music to my ears.The installation isn’t more difficult (or easier) than any other cartridge. They are delicate and require a bit of patience and the right couple of tools to get the job done.The seller was extraordinarily quick to ship this to me and it arrived in a carefully packaged padded envelope. I will definitely repurchase this exact cartridge again when the time comes to replace it. I recommend this cartridge and the vendor. âï¸âï¸âï¸âï¸âï¸
rebelle
2025-04-09 09:47:48
très étonnant rapport qualité-prix, on ne s'attend pas à avoir un tel son à ce prix : très précis dans l'espace, avec des aigus riches sans être agressifs et des graves amples en étant bien définis.Ça a été écrit par ailleurs, cette cellule équivaut à d'autres beaucoup plus chères !
roberto villa
2025-04-05 21:47:25
Mamma mia, come suona bene! Ho provato diverse testine ed uso ancora la mia "vecchia" Stanton Epoch II ma questa Nagaoka è davvero qualcosa di incredibile. Io non sono un audiofilo ma quando ho messo il primo LP (Dark Side of the Moon) sul piatto la mia mascella è caduta per lo stupore ed il piacere. Suona bene, un suono dolce, preciso che valorizza ancora di più il vinile. Bassi presenti nella giusta misura, mai slabbrati ma pieni, potenti e ben frenati, alti ben delineati, mai sibilanti ed è un piacere sentirli e medi che fanno da raccordo tra bassi e alti senza mai essere invadenti. Una dinamicità incredibile che ti farebbe stare ore ad ascoltare un palcoscenico così aperto con strumenti ben identificabile ed una separazione dei canali corretta e veritiera. Sono ben consapevole che il giudizio su questi componenti è assolutamente soggettivo ma, credetemi sentire suonare la Nagaoka MP 110 è puro piacere. Ho anche deciso che, budget permettendo, ne compererò un'altra magari la sorella maggiore chissà , sognare è sempre bello. Comunque veramente grazie Nagaoka, mamma mia che meraviglia ascoltarti!
fgp11
2025-03-08 11:06:34
La MP110 ha sido mi primera experiencia con una cápsula Nagaoka. La tengo montada en un tocadiscos Pro-Ject RPM Genie 1.3 y conectada a la entrada phono de un amplificador Yamaha de alta gama entrega un sonido excelente, sólido, cálido y táctil, con unos graves estupendos y muy buena espacialidad. Es posible que haya cápsulas que exploren mejor el microsurco y extraigan más detalle, pero la MP110 sobresale por una cualidad que es difÃcil de explicar, pero hace que la música suene real, como si el intérprete estuviera ahÃ. Otro rasgo destacable es su excelente capacidad de lectura, que minimiza la distorsión al final del disco; y su tolerancia con el ruido de fondo, que hace que los discos gastados sean reproducibles. Esta cápsula te abre las puertas a la magia del vinilo y con ella tienes la sensación de haber entrado en el mundo de la alta gama.
MangaTele
2025-02-09 18:31:39
I bought this on the advice of someone reviewing the Ortofon 2M Blue. I'm glad I did. After using it for about a month, I can report that It is extremely well-balanced tonally, and nicely detailed through the mid and high frequencies. I was replacing a Rega Elys on a Rega Planar 3 'table. The Elys was sounding kind of dull (possibly due to its age). The Nagaoka has brought the P3 back to life. A few things to know, though, if you're considering this cartridge for a Rega 'table:1. The Nagaoka is 17.5 mm tall. Rega Bias/Elys cartridges are 13.5 mm tall. This means that with the Nagaoka mounted on a Rega RB300 arm, the arm will tilt down slightly towards the pivot (which I understand is okay, and possibly optimal from a sonic standpoint). If you want to level the arm, you will have to add a spacer under the arm. Or you can do what I did (to partially compensate for the different heights): replace your Rega felt mat with a Pro-Ject Cork It mat (which is quite thin at 1.5 mm). The Pro-Ject mat works very well with a glass platter, and provides (I think) even greater detail.2. Proper alignment on the Rega arm means that the Nagaoka will be quite far forward in the "headshell". I have it about 3.5 mm out from the end of the headshell (look online for the image of this cartridge mounted on an RB250 arm, which someone has helpfully posted). It will look a bit like you've bolted a brick to the end of your tonearm (given the Nagaoka's boxy appearance). If you want something that looks good (or "right") on a Rega arm, you should probably look for a different cartridge. As for me, I'm very happy with the sound, and can live with the aesthetics.
Oliver G.
2025-01-21 12:59:21
Optisch vielleicht nicht auf dem neuesten Stand ,dafür aber klanglich weit vorne .Feine Höhen , angenehm warm temperierter Mittelton und ganz passabler Bass.Die räumliche Darstellung wirkt über meine Anlage glaubhaft , also weder künstlich aufgeblasen , noch eingeengt .Anfangs klingt das MP-110 etwas harsch und schrill . Doch bereits nach etwa 10 Stunden Einspielzeit ändert sich dieser Eindruck und das Klangbild gerät fein auflösend und stressfrei.Im Vergleich zu einem Grado Prestige Blue 2 , welches in der gleichen Preisliga spielt , holt das Nagoaka MP-110 wesentlich mehr Information aus den Rillen der Schallplatte.Das Prestige Blue 2 verschweigt da einige Details und klingt generell etwas bedeckter .Qualitativ finde ich das MP-110 sehr gut . Die Verpackung ist vorbildlich , es liegen dem System zweierlei Schraubenlängen und sogar ein kleiner Schraubendreher bei.Die Anschlüsse für die Tonabnehmerkabel sind farblich markiert.Sowas macht einfach einen guten Eindruck .Ein Grado Prestige Blue 2 wird gerade mal in einer kleinen Pappeschachtel geliefert . Ihm liegen nur ein Paar Schrauben bei und die Anschlüsse sind leider nicht markiert .Ganz böse sind die Wandungen des Prestige Blue 2 . Die aktuelle Version sieht aus , als hätten sich Kinder mit Fingern voller Kleber darauf verewigt . Das hat so tasächlich nichts mit den Abbildungen in Angeboten gemeinsam .Ich kann das Nagaoka MP-110 nur empfehlen.In seiner Preisklasse ist es sicherlich ein ganz heißer Tipp .
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