Features: Cartridges

I believe most hi-fi consumers and professionals hop scotch (my term) in the pursuit of audio nirvana. The reasons are, by and large, obvious: Upgrade neurosis coupled with a strong dose of financial considerations. This has been my story going back to my first audio purchase in 1968. I would listen to my system for a certain period of time and then decide which unit (turntable, cartridge, receiver, amp, preamp, speakers) would get the next upgrade. Back in the early... Read More

Ortofon celebrated its 90th anniversary by launching in 2009 the MC A90 ($4200) a revolutionary moving coil phono cartridge, the first to use SLM (Selective Laser Melting) to 3D "spray" an impossible to machine-shaped body using melted stainless steel powder. The result was a highly rigid, dense, low resonance minimalist body that resembled no other cartridge.The A90 also made use of a newly developed remarkably "dead" elastomer used in the damper.... Read More

The author tells the long and winding tale of getting his Kuzma arm and Lyra cartridge to surrender their potential.

How about starting a cartridge review with comments from YouTubers who have listened to it? Well, sort of. Last December I posted a video of the $20,000 Black Diamond DLC mounted on the Ortofon AS-309R arm ($3469), which was mounted on the OMA K3 prototype direct drive turntable ($360,000) driving the $70,000 CH Precision P10 phono preamplifier.Yes, it’s an outrageously costly “front end” chain with a $20,000 first link. Usually, these kinds of stunt videos attract... Read More

Needle Clinic is a Northern California company that offers retipping and repair of moving-coil cartridges, including upgrades.

Costly, exotic phono cartridges are fun to write about and of course to listen to and own but they represent a tiny fraction of the business for large, "industrial grade" producers like Audio-Technica. Though most of the company's cartridge output centers on "bread and butter" models like the AT and VM 95 series, maintaining high precision, manufacturing excellence requires exercises in forward thinking design and execution.... Read More

Until recently I’ve had no personal experience with DS Audio’s cutting-edge optical phono pickups, whereby the signal is generated from a pair of infra-red LEDs that shine onto photo detectors, completely dispensing with magnets and coils, moving or stationary. In their place, between the LEDs and the detectors, is a very lightweight shade, plate, or, to use DS’s parlance, “shading plate” attached to the cantilever; this shade modulates the amount of light from the... Read More

Hana introduced its S Series cartridges in 2014. They have become popular in many audio systems worldwide. Garth Leerer, President of Musical Surroundings, the US importer and distributor of Hana Cartridges, and Excel Sound Japan, the manufacturer of Hana cartridges, decided it was time to refresh their best-selling S Series cartridges, which include the high output SH, the low output SL and the mono SM. Designer Masao Okada-san aimed to incorporate the knowledge... Read More

Sometimes you just have to stop what you are doing and do this. I've been listening to a now vintage Shure V15V Type VxMR moving magnet cartridge, long considered "really good", really "linear", really great tracking at 1 gram, really worthy of "respect" but never considered "really exciting" sounding, that now sounds spectacular!People were dumping these V15s at one time because replacement styli were no longer available.... Read More

The Japanese firm DS Audio has been on a mission to revive and massively improve optical-based cartridges since CEO Tetsuaki Aoyagi introduced the DS Audio W1 in early 2014, updating Toshiba's optical cart concept from the 1970s. The DS W3 model I’m reviewing here is considered one of the company’s third-generation designs and incorporates many improvements taken from the top-of-the-line Grand Master Ex, Grand Master, and DS Master 3.(Editor's note: I... Read More

I’ve been a fan of Charisma Audio for a while now. I reviewed and purchased a Charisma Audio Signature One several years back. I consider that cart to be my first high-end cartridge. Although I previously used several other MC carts, the Signature One gave me a more neutral tonality along with more resolution than I previously had. So when Bernard Li of Charisma Audio asked if I’d like to hear his new top-of-the-line YYZ cartridge (the latest evolution up from the... Read More

Obviously, MoFi Electronics has not gone into the cartridge making business, though it does manufacture its own turntables and phono preamp. The lineup of three cartridges appears to be manufactured per Allen Perkins' order by Audio-Technica, which has of late been doing this for a number of American companies.The $999 StudioSilver is the middle of the three cartridge line, with the MasterTracker MM below and the $1495 UltraGold MC above. A value-packed cartridge... Read More

This is another of those very familiar stories. The vinyl bug bit EBI Audio's founder Tariq Shafeeque at an early age. His father was a big collector and you know how that goes. He grew up and became a structural engineer but vinyl continued to be his passion and hobby. Over time it morphed into a business, which is EBI Audio. EBI stands for "Engineering Beyond Imagination".You'll be thrown by your first visit to EBI's website where... Read More

In the SL-1200GR2 review I said I'd produce this video so you could hear the Seto-Hori Remodel and the turntable, so here it is. Plus the video shows the incredible packaging. It even sounds good on computer speakers. I'm not sure who will spend $4000 on a cartridge and put it in a $2199 turntable but this demonstrates that the 'table can do the job on most any cartridge you choose to use with it and produce excellent sound.You can read more about it on... Read More

Rega likes to point out that cartridges and turntables are “vibration measuring devices.” That sounds simplistic, or fanciful but it’s true. The stylus wiggling its way through the record groove unleashes a large amount of vibrational energy. Most of it reaches the intended target, which is either magnets or coils. But some of that energy causes the cartridge body to vibrate—we’ll ignore in this discussion unwanted energy returning to the record grooves or making its... Read More

The new $2,500 Hana Blue moving coil cartridge is the talk of the town and looks to fill the gap between the company's highly regarded Hana ML and flagship Hana Umami Red.

It’s no secret that the world’s two largest cartridge manufacturers, Audio-Technica and Ortofon generate most of their cartridge income from inexpensive, mass-produced units, many of which they supply OEM to turntable manufacturers. Yet both lavish time, attention, and financial resources on the far smaller (it would be fair to say “tiny”) top of the market, where ultra-precision hand-built limited-edition models garner more attention than sales from audio... Read More

When discussing high-end cartridge brands with fellow audio enthusiasts I find that many companies like Ortofon and Audio-Technica don’t elicit from them the same respect and brand panache recognition they pay to some of the smaller cartridge manufacturers—especially in the multi $1000 price range, where many want to own a cartridge they feel was built by an “artisan”.While having an artisan single-handedly craft your cartridge is certainly appealing, overlooking or... Read More