Price as reviewed was $11,053 with a glass platter mat ($259), a two-piece record weight ($799), and a Jelco TL-850M tonearm (though Jelco announced in May 2020 that it was ceasing production). After using the Audio-Technica to play his favorite LP of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, he wrote, "I expected a better sense of touch from the strings, and that I heard. The MC circuitry was also impressive, especially with a Shindo-rebuilt Ortofon SPU cartridge, although the Jensen transformers appeared not to provide the same sense of drama, force, and bass weight as (far more expensive) outboard transformers. Compared to AD's original Ortofon SPU, the Xpression sounded just as solid, colorful, and forceful, but was more detailed, open, tactile, and revealing of nuance and technique. It retains the stereo version's boron cantilever and Replicant 100 stylus profile. The EMT's overall sound was open, clear, and transparent, with above-average presence, body, and color, and an outstanding sense of momentum and flow. Not long after AD's review, JCA tried an Xpression with his combination of vintage Thorens TD 124 turntable and Schick 12" tonearm; for various reasonsat the time he felt it "cost way too much for what it was"he set it aside, returning to it only recently. I feel the same when went to the auditing room of a store to audit, that the bass response of LS 50 Meta is lacking compare to R3, feels more tin-ish to me.

Dylp Audio Windbell MC100 MkII: $350 Specs include a 0.4mV output and a recommended downforce of 34gm (Mikey had good results at 3.5gm). As HR wrote, "what struck me was how much the Ultra Eminent Ex's presentation sounded like analog tape," adding that the cartridge "excavated so much microlevel information that it seemed to reach some perceptual limit where recorded detail . Please fix it.

An example of the sort of very-low-distortion headphone design that HR calls the studio sound aesthetic, the MDR-Z1Rs are His conclusion: "a stunning-sounding, artfully engineered phono invention that loves all music, and a fantastic bargain." It uses a Replicant 100 stylus, has a recommended downforce of 2.6gm, an impedance of 4 ohms, and a low (0.3mV) output. "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. Notably, the titanium-bodied Ultra Eminent Ex moving coil cartridge mates an output level that's only moderately low (0.3mV) with an exceptionally low internal resistance (0.6 ohm). 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. (Vol.41 No.4), Miyajima Labs Madake: $5895 . SAT CF1-09: 48,000 SAT CF1-12: 50,000 D'Agostino Momentum Phono, EAR Acute Classic, Luxman EQ-500, Music First Audio MC Step Up 632, not auditioned in a long time.

The theoretical result is far less dynamic compression than with traditional MC designsand reduced compression is precisely what AD heard from the Tzar: "The Tzar DST is the most incredibly tactile, forceful, and altogether open-throttled pickup I've ever tried."

The discOveryOne is both the newest and the least expensive record-cleaning machine from the company that created the genre. It uses a 6CA4 rectifier tube and choke filter, while RIAA is accomplished passively with zero feedback using a transformer-based LCR network. A MusiKraft Denon with a polished aluminum-lithium shell ($1689) impressed AD all to hell and back: The MusiKraft lacked "the slight treble glare" associated with his stock Denon 103, and provided "pitches and pitch relationships [that] were steadily, solidly right," and "vocal textures and tones with real meat and color."

For an extra 220, the GrooveMaster II's aluminum armtube can be swapped out for one made of titanium (this adds to the arm's effective mass); another 175 gets you an SME-style sliding tonearm mount that makes installation and setup a good deal easier.

Mikey tried the CF1-12 in place of the Schrder CB arm on the OMA SP10 Plinth System, and praised the SAT's "more explosive," "warmer," and "fuller" sound. The comments under the heading "Harbeth P3ESR XD" seem to imply that the XD version is identical to the 40th Anniversary edition, which Herb reviewed. . (Vol.30 No.10, Vol.32 No.8, Vol.33 No.6 WWW), Boulder 2108: $52,000 The Zu DL-103 Mk.II is available in three versions, the differences between them determined by the tolerances Zu observes while hand-selecting stock Denon cartridges: Grade 1 ($599), Grade 2 ($699), and Grade 2 Premium ($999). Luxman PD-151 Mark II: $7975 incl. (Vol.37 Nos.10 & 12 WWW), Tavish Design Adagio: $1890 An optional internal RIAA compensation module adds $1199. JCA also spent time with the Phono Loco, echoing MF's thoughts on its "extremely quiet" performance and enjoyably "corporeal" images. According to MF, who auditioned the Forte Engraved with AMG's 12JT tonearm (see "Tonearms") and an Ortofon Anna Diamond cartridge, what makes this turntable so appealing is its midrange presentation, "which, though ever so slightly thick, is highly resolved and includes complete freedom from overhang." When he used the revised SA-1.2also an HR favoritewith the perennially recommendable Denon DL-103 cartridge, the low compliance of which is well suited to such a high-mass arm, AD found it capable of pulling from his records "tremendous amounts of touch and force and impact." . Compared to the P1, the RP1 delivered more drive, better focus, and was the more confident, purposeful, and authoritative player. Specs include a 42-ohm internal resistance, 0.48mV output, and a recommended VTF of 2.46gm, in accordance with the Kiseki's moderate compliance. The arm's basics remain: a precision-milled armtube of rectangular cross section, static downforce, and a removable headshell for easy cartridge changes. (Vol.39 No.7 WWW). everything except a video camera for backing it out of the driveway. And the Linn Radikal moda DC motor with an outboard switch-mode power supplyimpressed Mr. D with "more force, more momentum, and a little more sheer grip on the notes." . Adding Brinkmann's optional RNt tubed power supply ($4490) produced cleaner, better-articulated mid- and high-frequency transients, said MF. A Delrin clamp for the platter and a thread-and-weight antiskating mechanism for the armthe latter a bit of a departure for VPIare also included, as are an easy-to-use cartridge-alignment jig and an electronic downforce gauge. That this low-impedance (1.5 ohm) cartridge outputs a relatively healthy output (0.45mV) is further evidence of its magnetic efficiency.

The 11" version costs $6000.

He added that the E3 "played [music] with much of the realism and complexity it does with a Koetsu" and noted the cartridge's superb PRaT (pace, rhythm, and timing). In examining the new Planar 3, HR noted that his review sample did indeed run a bit fast, and he wondered whether some measure of the "'pacey,' boogie-down Rega sound" has to do with a combination of that and a microscopic "doubling" effect from the player's lively plinth. (Vol.43 No.4 WWW), Garrard 301: $23,500 (plus freight) w/arm and plinth The Umami Red displayed sharper, more precisely focused images than the much less expensive Hana ML, he decided.

(Vol.38 .Nos.2 & 12, Vol.39 No.10 WWW), Vinyl Flat LP Flattener: $139.95 shipped CONUS HR got the best from the Cobalt Blue by pairing it with the 1:10 version of the EMIA Phono step-up transformer, writing that during the time it was in his system, "I never once took the Cobalt Blue's beguiling occupy-the-room presentation for granted.

WebCompatibility between the tonearm and the cartridge and the cartridge and the Phono Stage is crucial . 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.

The EMIA is available with copper or silver windings; AD spent some quality time with a copper-wire version wound with a 15:1 ratio, for use with his EMT TSD 15 and Denon DL-103 cartridges.

Sumiko's newest high-compliance (12 106 cm/dyne), low-output (0.5mV) moving coil is specified as having a 28 ohm internal impedance. Like Rega's previous flagship cartridge, the Apheta, which endures in the line, their new Aphelion is a moving-coil that dispenses with suspension dampers and a tie wire. Shaped like the classic EMT 997 "banana" tonearm but lacking that arm's offset bearing, lateral-balance outrigger weight, and dynamic downforce, the GrooveMaster II is a 12" arm primarily intended for use with Ortofon SPUs and other vintage-vibe pickup heads. This one-box phono preamp, roughly shoebox-shaped and -sized, is a two-stage solid-state design that uses bipolar transistors for gainswitchable between 45 and 66dBand buffering. The key to the TA-9000's performanceand its remarkable priceis an armtube design in which concentric structures of aluminum alloy are joined by a very complex spiral arrangement of more than 700 connecting limbs.


Art's conclusion: "If your budget can stretch this far, the Luxman EQ-500 is a must-hear." selectable or not, plays no role in current amplificationand balanced-only inputs. (Vol.39 No.10, Vol.41 No.5 WWW), DS Audio Master 1: $20,000 with equalizer (Vol.41 No.10 WWW), Hana SL: $750 $$$ That motor isn't outwardly visibleat first glance, the Giro might be mistaken for a direct-drive turntablebut is hidden underneath, driving the platter from a point inside its rim by means of a thin rubber belt. Writing of his experiences with the SP-10R and Schrder CB tonearm mounted in the OMA Plinth System, MF described an "austere" sound that was "rhythmically taut and, overall, 'together' from top to bottom," with music pouring forth from "the 'blackest' backdrops," leading him to praise this pricey plinth as "one super energy sink." Deletions . It's a Martin D-28, a BMW 3-series, a bottle of Bombay Sapphire: It will please any sane, reasonable person," he sums up. It weighs 9.5gm and has a boron cantilever fitted with a MicroRidge stylus. The manufacturer recommends loading the cartridge at 400800 ohms and setting the tracking force between 1.9gm and 2.1gm. HR opined that, with his Ortofon and Grado cartridges, the MMP3 "leaned a little toward soft and dark, and a lot toward invisible."

Never been a fan of the Polk speakers till the Legend series. Its effective mass is a higher-than-average 22gmideal for those pickup heads and other typically low-compliance cartridgesand a calibrated (if opaquely) magnetic antiskating device is provided.

The PU7 seems better finished than its forebear, although creature comforts are thin on the groundadjustments of VTF and VTA depend on the user loosening one or more grub screws and repositioning uncalibrated parts, and antiskating is a simple thread and falling weightbut, as MF pointed out, the design "emphasizes rigidity over convenience." Whereas most moving-coil cartridges have their stylus at one end of a cantilever and their coils, wound on tiny coil formers, at the other, the Tzar DSTlike the vintage Neumann DST 62 cartridge on which it's modeledsays to hell with the formers: Its coils are glued right to the cantilever just behind the stylus. There are maybe half a dozen newish models. I doubt it." (Vol.40 No.8), Ortofon MC Xpression: $5669 Used with a Kuzma 4Point 11 tonearm ($6675 as supplied), the Stabi R wowed KMwhose reference turntable is the less expensive Kuzma Stabi Swith "its ability to communicate force at lower volumes, a kind of tranquil power."

(Vol.3 No.9, Vol.30 .Nos.10 & 12, Vol.34 No.12, Vol.39 No.9 WWW), Dynavector DV 10X5: $750 $$$ (Vol.43 No.7 WWW), Lamm Industries LP2.1 Deluxe: $13,390 (Vol.38 No.10, Vol.43 No.9 WWW), Grado Epoch3: $12,000 Two velvet-like brushes clean both sides of a record simultaneously as the user rotates the record within the appropriate slot. (Vol.30 No.10 WWW), Boulder 508: $5000 That smoothness, MF wrote, "prevented percussive transients on top and bottom from developing excitement-generating bite and textural grip." (Vol.41 No.2 WWW), MuTech Kanda: $4500 MusiKraft started business making precision-machined metal shells for the classic Denon DL-103 cartridge, but soon found themselves selling shells with stock DL-103s installed, and shell-only sales ended in late 2019.

Charles Kirmuss bases his KA-RC-1 record-cleaning machine on a standard-issue Chinese-made cavitation (ultrasonic bath) cleaner, adding to it an original-design record-spinning apparatus that MF found to be "very good." Following an absence from the market of nearly a quarter century, Kiseki's handmade MC cartridges are back, manifested in two separate lines: New Old Style (NOS), built in 20102011 using a mix of old and new parts, and New Style (NS), which are new in every way. could be why higher female voices sounded so pure and naturally toned." The SPU Wood A offers tremendous bang for the buck. I have been able to compare the BRXs to a true class A speaker in my system, and I do now agree with the class B rating. "The Audiodesksysteme was the most effective, easy-to-use cleaning machine I've tried," said MF, who bought the review sample. Herb recommends avoiding lean, analytical-sounding cartridges, including AMG's own Teatrohis best results with the Giro G9 were with the notably colorful EMT TSD 75and advises the user to consider upgrading the AMG player with a third-party isolation base. (Vol.39 .Nos.9 & 12 WWW), Rega Aphelion 2 MC cartridge: $4995 AD described the Little Fwend as "one of the most well-conceived, well-packaged, well-made audio accessories I've encountered." Its compliance, though unspecified, was observed by AD to be very lowrecommended downforce is 3.24gmand its output is a mere 0.25mV.

Now with balanced cable. In AD's system, the HSD 006 sounded "like a TSD 15, but a little more modern. Yet the PC-1 Coda impressed him as a "masterfully voiced, low-coloration cartridge that worked well with all musical genres." Distributed by Missouri-based Osage Audio Products, LLC. Miyajima makes no fewer than five single-channel cartridges. (Vol.38 No.3), Luxman EQ-500: $6495 (Vol.44 No.7 WWW), Sumiko Starling: $1899 As with other examples of the breed, the Haniwa offers no user controls other than its power switchresistive loading. Gain is 26dB. The jumper plug is located on the left side of smaller power supply circuit board labeled ECC83 and 13D16. Unlike those cartridges regarded by purists as true mono pickupssuch as EMT's discontinued OFD modelsthe Hana SL Mono does exhibit vertical compliance, and the output signal appears on both its pairs of output pins. Inside is a version of EMT's classic TSD-series motor, characterized by high impedance (24 ohms) and output (1.05mV), with an alnico magnet and an aluminum cantilever to which is fitted a Super Fine Line stylus. When HR auditioned the E3, he commented that "It brought out every note with a precision I never imagined a moving magnet could muster." 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 (Vol.44 No.11 WWW). 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.

The basic package contains two Groovy Rings (LP-sized sheets of black plastic), two heavy metal plates, a few pieces of hardware, a nice storage case, and a table of heating times and cooling cycles. With its spherical stylus, the Maroon is the least expensive of the British-built London cartridges: Deccas in all but name, and all featuring the same Deccades-old (sorry) "positive-scanning" design in which the stylus is fastened directly to the generator mechanism. Setting up the Synergy is relatively easy, as one might expect from an expensive turnkey player, but the "the Synergy is not exactly 'plug'n'play,'" according to MF, who also praised the "soundstage three-dimensionality" and "complete freedom from mechanical artifacts" of this "very competent and fine SME player." The MusiKraft shell is machined in such a way that its two pieces, when assembled, tightly clamp the Denon cartridge's top plate; each shell is predrilled with five sets of tapped mounting holes, thus making cartridge mounting and alignment easier than ever. His conclusion: "$199/pair for the PHTs, with money-back guarantee, is well worth it." Extrapolating from the more common stereo Koetsu Rosewoods, MF estimates the Mono's output as 0.4mV, its internal impedance as 5 ohms, and its tracking-force range as 1.8?2gm. However, there are now two sets of each: one for older IEC-conforming LPs and the other for post-1990 discs, which have a significant increase in innermost groove radius.

Derived from the first Windfeld modelwhich was designed by Ortofon's head of R&D, Leif Johannsen, and named for his predecessor in that position, Per Windfeldthe new Windfeld Ti MC cartridge differs from the original in its use of a titanium body core that flares at the top to form its mounting platform, which is drilled and tapped for cartridge bolts of the usual sort.

(Vol.34 Nos.2, 4, & 5 WWW). than the Classic Direct." . According to MF, the Windfeld Ti, with which he used a vertical tracking force of 2.3gm, "retained all of the sweetness and lushness of the original Windfeld."

This "optical" cartridge operates by projecting light from an LED onto a tiny "shading plate" mounted at the center of the cantilever. MF wrote that "Even before break-in, the PP-2000 produced an expansive soundstage and a smooth spectral balance that was free of obvious defects or easy-to-hear limitations. . HR said the Sentec EQ11, used with the Miyajima Spirit Mono cartridge, "can show you a lot of what you still haven't heard from your old records. (Vol.40 No.7 WWW), AVM Rotation R 2.3: $4500 (w/ tonearm) (Vol.43 No.6 WWW), SAT LM-09: 25,000 (Vol.43 No.1 WWW), Sutherland Engineering Duo: $4000 (Vol.42 No.11), TechDAS Air Force V: $19,500 w/o tonearm With Phantom III Tonearm: $24,500 There is one recommended in the integrated amps category: https://www.stereophile.com/content/quad-artera-solus-integrated-amplifiercd-player. Acoustic Signature Ascona Mk.2, Analogueworks TT-Zero, Brinkmann Bardo, Pear Audio Blue Kid Thomas, VPI HRX not auditioned in a long time.

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 gold standard of static-discharge devices," the ZeroStat is a gun-shaped gadget with two heavy-duty piezo-electric crystals and a patented compression trigger. Some standouts: The Lingo power-supply mod of 1990 minimizes the LP12's propensity toward a slightly fat midbass and subjectively "adds an octave of low-bass extension," according to JA. Single after single, the Hana SL Mono made sound that was decidedly present, punchy, finely detailed, and liquid." Specs include an output of 0.3mV and an impedance of 18 ohms: a curious combination, as the latter seems much higher than the former would lead one to expect.