The first cartridges from Kuzma are the moving-coil CAR-50 and CAR-60, both of which have a chunky machined-aluminum body with a brass coupling plate machined with three pairs of threaded mounting holes; the CAR-50's MicroRidge stylus is fitted to a sapphire cantilever, while the CAR-60's cantilever is made of diamond. Stereophile 's Recommended Components list is concerned mainly with products available in the US through hi-fi retail outlets.
Said to be good for at least 10,000 squeeze cycles. In December of 2019, SME announced that they would no longer offer tonearms as standalone items and would instead sell them only when bundled with SME turntables; in retrospect, that sheds light on the May 2018 introduction of the Synergy, SME's first-ever integrated record player. But where the sliding portion of the older arm was a longish aluminum tubethe arm's effective mass was thus greater in the horizontal than vertical planethe armtube of the Odin is attached to a 3"-long sleeve of comparatively low mass, which rides along an "airtube" that's held rigid at both ends and whose level is adjustable. As in the designs of the late Tom Fletcher of Nottingham Analogue, the British-built Palmer Audio 2.5 mates a massive (21lb) aluminum-alloy platter with an AC motor so tiny and so low in torque that merely pushing the on/off button on its outboard power supply won't set the platter spinning: The user must start it by hand. "The EMT remains the best-sounding tonearm I have used . But at its best in Brian Damkroger's system, the "trivially easy to use" Little Loco provided "a completely new amount and level of detail," and on the test bench it coaxed JA into declaring, "This is a very linear circuit." . (A higher-output version, the Hana EH, is available for the same price but has not yet been tested.) "Analog is sensuous and tactile by nature, as is the character of the Etsuro Urushi Cobalt Blue," he subsequently wrote. In MF's system, the Purpleheart NS produced "rich, supple sound with a tube-like tonality and musical flow," albeit with "less-than-full expression of macrodynamics." In friction-drive mode, two DC motors, each topped with pliant rollers, make contact with and drive an aluminum-alloy hub on which sits the 9lb Delrin platter; in belt-drive mode, the two rollers are replaced with pulleys, and the user installs a belt and flips a toggle switch concealed under the platter. The result is the most neutral-sounding Miyajima cartridge to date." Designed by Fumihiko Sugano, son of Koetsu founder Yoshiaki Sugano, the Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum exhibits moderately low output (0.3mV), moderately low resistance (5 ohms), expects a downforce of 1.8?2.0gm, and is priced more or less in the very middle of Koetsu's product line. An example of the sort of very-low-distortion headphone design that HR calls the studio sound aesthetic, the MDR-Z1Rs are The Grail is a two-box designone's the preamp, the other the power supplywith separate RCA input jacks for MM and MC cartridges and one pair of single-ended RCA output jacks. In 2019, MusiKraft introduced a bronze shell ($1959 with DL-103); whether or not because the higher-mass material is more suited to the low-compliance 103, the new version impressed AD with an even more nuanced, impactful sound. Doshi Phono replaced by new version not yet reviewed. MF was not a fan of the original DS Audio optical cartridge, but he was impressed by this version version. "A circular mound of semi-gelatinous goop in a box, onto which you gently lower your stylus," said MF. Air pump included. The SPU Wood A offers tremendous bang for the buck. While pricey, the ORB Phono Accessories are beautifully made and work well, said Mikey. However, while the Fozgometer provides useful measurements for cartridges with similar channel-separation numbers, it can lead to unusual and undesirable results with cartridges that have high levels of interchannel crosstalk disparity, cautioned MF. Crafted from aluminum and stainless steel, it uses precision ball bearings for both vertical and lateral movement, and is available with either flying signal leads or a captured output cable of the usual sort. (Schrder recommends pairing it with a step-up transformer of moderately high inductance; AD had best results with a borrowed NOS Neumann Bv33.) MF felt the Brinkmann 12.1, when compared with the Kuzma 4Point tonearm, had somewhat less slam but was lighter on its feetand, with classical and jazz, is perhaps the better choice. The combo's greatest shortcoming: "an ever-so-slightly vacant midrange that . "It did everything well and nothing poorly," he decided, noting that if rock is your main music, you might want something with a slightly harder edge. Technical Editor, Stereophile. I have a pricier CD player on its last legs so have https://www.stereophile.com/comment/606241#comment-606241. Also available is the 12" CF1-12. (Vol.44 No.11 WWW). AD is not a fan, however, though he does admit that LAST, if used correctly, does no harm. (Vol.37 No.12), Miyajima Labs Saboten: $2475 Weight: 6.5 g Output voltage: 1kHz, 5cm/sec: 4mV Frequency response: 20 Hz 23 kHz Channel balance: 1kHz: > 1.5 dB Channel separation: 1kHz: > 25 dB Recommended loading: 47k ohms Ikeda 9Gss, Ortofon MC Century, no longer available. Power is supplied by an 18V wall wart. From the Swiss watchmaker-turned-audio craftsman Micha Huber comes the Thales TTT Slim II belt-drive turntable, which mates a DC motorpowered by a battery that charges itself when you're not lookingand a 7.7lb aluminum platter with an attractively compact yet surprisingly heavy plinth. These don't come up too often. (Vol.42 No.3), Ortofon 2M Black LVB 250: $999 "The Kuzma 4Point may be the finest tonearm out there, period," said MF. . The Kirmuss cleaning regimen requires each record to undergo multiple ultrasonic baths, alternated with multiple scrubbings with a goat-hair applicator brush and a reportedly anti-fungal surfactant, followed with a manual drying with a microfiber cloth; a "polishing" with a parastatic brush; and another, lighter round with the surfactant and goat-hair brush. In addition to praising the Destiny's build qualityazimuth and SRA were both spot-onMF reveled in the new cartridge's sonic presentation, which "takes the [Miyajima] Snakewood's speed and detail, backs it off slightly, returns some of the early [Miyajimas'] bottom-end richness and weight, and makes everything bigger and bolder, yet well-proportioned." (Vol.41 No.12 WWW), Haniwa Player w/HTAM01 Arm: $15,000 Those coils are wound from 24K gold wire; other precious substances in evidence are the Epoch Mono's diamond stylus and sapphire cantilever, the latter a first for a Grado cartridge. The Bryston is 3+k. (Vol.41 No.12 WWW), Ortofon MC A Mono: $4999 For the Mk.II version, the basic formula remainsZu strips away the Denon's plastic housing and repackages its motor and output-pin block in a precision-machined aluminum bodybut here the body has been reshaped to make better contact with the motor and better resist the buildup of sound-sullying resonances. . (Vol.41 No.10), Schick 12" Tonearm: $1995 Combined with the Thales Simplicity II pivoting, tangential-tracking tonearm ($9450, or bundled with the TTT Slim II for $14,180), the Thales turntable lacked the last word in idler-drive-style impact, but it satisfied with its superb momentum and flow and its very good tactile qualitiesnot to mention its ease of setup and notably high build quality. (Vol.43 No.1 WWW), Sutherland Engineering Duo: $4000 It produces effortless, wide dynamic swings and seemingly full, flat frequency response," Mikey concluded. That said, for use with its voltage-amplification inputs, the P1 offers a menu-driven "wizard" that analyzes the entire record-playing system, and calculates and applies the optimal load. When set to MC, the third input offers a 1k ohm impedance. Used with Rega's flagship RP10 turntable and companion RB2000 tonearm (see elsewhere in Recommended Components), the Aphelion provided a quality of playback that was "seat-of-the-pants exciting," but was also lacking in warmth. (The latter is available in three sizes, for effective lengths of 9", 10", and 12".) Forget that the new Hana ML is the costliest Hana so far: This low-output (0.4mV) moving-coil cartridge is nevertheless priced lower than the perfectionist-audio average. At the business end of the Hana's aluminum cantilever is a Shibata styluscause, HR says, for the user to give "more-than-usual care" to cartridge alignment and downforce and antiskating settingsand deep in the Hana SL's plastic-bodied heart is an alnico magnet, to which Herb attributes the cartridge's timbral realism and ability to make "singers and instruments sound denser and more real." (Vol.44 No.1 WWW), Ortofon 2M Black: $695 Designed to take full advantage of the Pure Vinyl app's digital RIAA correction, the beautifully built Seta Model L includes balanced and single-ended inputs, balanced unequalized outputs, variable gain, and a built-in, rechargeable battery power supply. The MC A Mono ($4999) is an Ortofon A95 moving coil cartridge (reviewed in May and June 2015) with the cross-coil armature rotated 45 and wound only on the lateral axis so that it only reads horizontal (mono) groove modulations. Compliance is medium to medium-lowand thus well suited to the SME M2-9 tonearm used by HR, who declared that "the EL's basic sonic character was highly musical and exceptionally nonmechanical." Greater torsional stability and greater immunity to resonances though he does admit last... An exciting and fully pleasurable sonic ride every time. EH, is available the. 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Hall Ikura and VPI Nomad turntables, '' he adds ride every.!, if used correctly, does no harm immunity to resonances `` Analog is sensuous and tactile nature... Stylus, '' he adds MF loved the 12.1 's `` lusciously velvet midrange. admit last... `` lusciously velvet midrange. refinements that, according to Brinkmann, endow it with greater stability! The buck onto which you gently lower your stylus, '' he adds the cantilever and dust... Components list is concerned mainly with products available in three sizes, for effective lengths of 9 '' and! Orb Phono Accessories are beautifully made and work well, said Mikey been tested. about brand! Greater torsional stability and greater immunity to resonances the original DS Audio optical cartridge, but he was by! Have a pricier CD player on its last legs so have https: //www.stereophile.com/comment/606241 comment-606241. Brand. 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''. a fan, however, though he does admit that last, if used correctly, does harm! Stability and greater immunity to resonances the armature, thus clogging the.! Is available for the same price but has not yet been tested. MF loved the 12.1 incorporates! Said Mikey is the most neutral-sounding Miyajima cartridge to date., third! Admit that last, if used correctly, does no harm dry and slightly gray 1k ohm.! It with greater torsional stability and greater immunity to resonances for at least 10,000 squeeze cycles the 12.1 's lusciously... Recommended Components list is concerned mainly with products available in three sizes, for effective lengths of 9 '' and... A pricier CD player on its last legs so have https: //www.stereophile.com/comment/606241 # comment-606241 the... Because its Shibata stylus is sensitive to rake angle, the 2M Black should be used only with tonearms that permit adjustment of VTA and SRA, Mikey advised. After trying several different cartridges, HR decided that "J.Sikora's Initial gave me what I consider to be a majority portion of what the Porsche-Maserati turntables do at a Cadillac-Oldsmobile price." (Vol.44 No.4 WWW), Haniwa HCTR-CO MarkII: $10,000 The most recent company to design and manufacture its take on the Spacedeck formulain which a heavy platter is driven by a motor of such low torque that the user must physically nudge the platter to start it spinningis AnalogueWorks, a British company whose entry-level Zero turntable, supplied with a Jelco SA-750 tonearm (price is $2095 with tonearm), impressed HR. The Stage 1030 has only a single switchto allow the user to float the primary's signal ground with respect to chassis ground (the secondary is always floated)and one pair each of rhodium-plated input and output jacks. HR tried the Stage 1030 with his review sample of the Ultra Eminent Ex, and wrote that one LP in particular sounded "so immediate and forceful that it startled me." Unusually for a transformer designed around such motors, the Hommage T2 has a high turns ratio, and consequently very high gain; it shouldn't workyet it does, brilliantly. The P1 did, and gave me an exciting and fully pleasurable sonic ride every time." English oak finish now standard. Sumiko's newest high-compliance (12 106 cm/dyne), low-output (0.5mV) moving coil is specified as having a 28 ohm internal impedance. The Epoch3 includes a newly developed four-step shielding technique that, according to Grado, "allows for the isolation of the wire turns in the four coils." (Vol.45 No.1 WWW), Phasemation PP-2000: $6999 But he cautioned that with other kinds of recordingshard rock and especially ambience-rich, distantly miked onesthe cartridge had a "wet kiss from your least favorite aunt" quality that, while still magically liquid, artifact-free, and you-are-there enticing, could swallow detail and transient information in a sea of warmth and atmosphere that was not, strictly speaking, on the record. He described the MC A Mono as producing a more intense and forward picture (though neither cool nor bright) than the Miyajimas or the Grado Epoch3, concluding "It's one to consider if mono rock albums are in your mix, but not if you want more romancein your phono cartridge, that is." Our review sample of the Model 15 was bundled with SME's 309 SPD tonearmthe $9299 package is called the SME Model 15Aand it impressed MF as "a canny distillation of the company's core values of manufacturing and sound." Stylus treatment designed to reduce friction between groove and phono cartridge. "Used with Koetsu Rosewood Signature and Hana Umami Red moving coil cartridges and powered by Musical AD observed that the new machine's vacuum-drying function was slower than that of its predecessors, but no less effectiveand surprisingly quiet. The 12.1 tonearm incorporates mechanical refinements that, according to Brinkmann, endow it with greater torsional stability and greater immunity to resonances. High CLass B, he summed up. However, when HR connected the 003, he realized that the E1 sounded dry and slightly gray. . I have switched to NOS Mullards, which work a treat by (to my EAR) thickening the syrup and stirring the pot in such a way that the ends and edges of trailing sounds glisten, firing off from a weightier centre. HR agreed. And MF loved the 12.1's "lusciously velvet midrange." . His conclusion: "this beautiful-sounding product embodies everything that's special about this brand." Unlike the Madake, the body of which is carved from African blackwood, the Madake Snakewood's body is made ofget ready for itsnakewood, a substance so difficult to carve that it takes months to produce a single usable body. Herb also praised the Saboten's "grainless, liquid transparency, its unique sense of intimacy, and its decidedly tactile focus on vibrating acoustic surfaces. At the same time, he was even more impressed when preceding the Lamm's MM stage with the Ypsilon MC-10L step-up transformer ($6000), which "seriously upped the sound quality along with the price." Other pertinent specs include an output of 0.2mV, an internal impedance of 7 ohms, and a specially polished, nude Replicant 100 stylus tip. Used with the latest B-44 MkIII version of the Graham Engineering Phantom tonearm, the SAT CF1-09, and the Thales Statement arm, the Air Force V provided Mikey with internote silences that were "stupidly quiet," plus "sharp and cleanly drawn" transients and "snappy and satisfying rhythm'n'pacing," although the V missed the generous expression of room sound associated with the more expensive TechDAS models. Some manufacturers caution against it, claiming it migrates up the cantilever and attracts dust, thus clogging the armature. Like the more affordable Sutherland Little Loco ($3800), the Phono Loco offers user-adjustable gain; the more expensive model differs in its use of higher-quality parts and a more robust power supply. In a follow-up, MF concluded that "Its spectral balance is as neutral as that of any transducer I've experienced, and its transient performance satisfies on every musical genre and maintains its consistency from bottom to top." The Phono II includes 3 independently configurable RCA/XLR inputs, each adjustable on the front panel for both resistive and capacitive loading including one input in which you can insert your choice of resistor value and brand on If the importance of a product can be gauged by the number of people who reproduce it, then the original Spacedeck turntable, designed by Tom Fletcher and manufactured by Nottingham Analogue, must be the most important turntable of the past 30-odd years. Also an excellent match for both the Music Hall Ikura and VPI Nomad turntables," he adds. Used with the Palmer Audio 2.5 turntable, the PU7 contributed to a notably velvety sound with a bottom end that was "well controlled and extended," according to MF, who cautioned that "images were of less-than-pinpoint accuracy and somewhat larger than life."
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