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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
 
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,
gakman
52 posts
 
Hi, I have been considering trying the ART-9, and was hoping maybe someone here could help me out. I own a Rega Planer 25 table with the supplied RB600 arm, I don't know how to figure the effective mass, dynamic compliance and come up with the resonant frequency. If someone could let me know how well this arm and cartridge would work together it would be greatly appreciated, I might also add that I had a local shop add adjustable VTA to the tonearm.
dodgealum's avatar
dodgealum
1,404 posts
 
Got some time to listen this weekend and really heard the break in process unfold. Not sure if this has happened to anyone else before but this is the second time for me (the first was with my current speakers)--while listening (i.e. in the middle of an album) you could actually hear things open up, relax and become more spacious and dimensional. Very cool. For anyone who has ever had doubts about whether break in is a "thing" to experience this will really open your eyes. Still less that 25 hours on the ART 9 so I'll wait to comment further until I get more miles on the cartridge.
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