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Pani ... New ART-9 up and running ...

The Cartridge arrived and I took it down to Studio City to Acoustic Image to have Eliot Midwood set it up properly. Eliot is the bomb when it comes to setting up the Well Tempered turn tables correctly.

http://www.acousticimage.com/

So, last night I had Mr. Golden Ears over to get his assessment as well. For a brand new cartridge that had zero hours on it ... all I can say is WOW! This is one naturally musical cartridge that doesn't break the bank. Its everything I liked about the OC9-mk III, but it goes far beyond the OC-9 in every respect.

In a previous post, I talked about the many mono records I own and how good the OC-9 was with the monos. Well, the ART-9 is on steroids. Just amazing on mono recordings.

At under $1100.00 from LP Tunes, its a bargain. The ART-9 surpasses all cartridges I've had in the system before. That would include Dynavectors, Benz, Grado Signatures and a Lyra Clavis that I dearly loved. In fact, its more musically correct than the Clavis. The Clavis was the champ at reproducing the piano correctly ... the ART-9 is equally as good in this area.

Sound stage, depth of image, left to right all there. Highs ... crystalline. Mids ... female and male voices are dead on. Transparency ... see through. Dynamics ... Wow! Low noise floor ... black. Mono records ... who needs stereo?

Your assessment that the ART-9 doesn't draw attention to itself is dead on. You just don't think about the cartridge at all. Not what its doing, or what its not doing ... its just beautiful music filling the room.

Thanks again Pani for the recommendation. I'll keep posting here as the cartridge continues to break in.
128x128oregonpapa
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa OP
4,867 posts
 
Dodgealum

The ART-9 will sound better than your OC-9 right out of the box. With that said, you won't begin to hear what the cartridge is capable of for about 40-50 hours. At that point, you'll be full of Oh's and Ah's ... but that's nothing compared with what you'll hear at 100 hours when the cartridge is fully broken in. Have patients and once you reach full break in, do as I do ... have a box of adult Pampers handy and insist that your friends wear them before they can enter your listening room.

Happy listening ...
dodgealum's avatar
dodgealum
1,404 posts
 
Got it dialed in on Saturday but only had time to listen to a few LPs. So far....Wow. Looking forward to how this evolves!
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa OP
4,867 posts
 
Told ya. And lest we forget ... we have member "Pani" to thank for the original suggestion and pushing us toward the ART-9.

And just as a side note ... if you have a belt driven turntable, go here: www.originlive.com and order one of their custom turntable belts. The improvement is uncanny. It really improves the speed accuracy. You can actually hear the darned thing break in as you play records. Its a wow tweek!
pani
1,219 posts
 
Hey thanks again Oregonpapa. It feels great to see that something I learnt turned out to be helpful to fellow audiophiles too. In this hobby where everything is subjective, very few such components appear in the scene that has such universal appeal. Some thing must be very right about the design and implementation of this cartridge.
griffithds
852 posts
 
Audio Technica is not a new kid on the block when it comes to producing good cartridges. There biggest problem is to convince the 'bean counters' that there is a market out there and money to be made if the right product is presented.
regards,
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