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

Just stumbled upon this thread, very timely too as I have recently at last, fitted my ART-9 to my SAEC WE506/30. I have been working on (and off - as time permits) a rebuild of a 1978 Sony TTS 8000 with the SAEC in my own plinth design. The plinth is currently at prototype stage to establish correct tonearm positioning as SAEC's own recommendations I assume are based around 7" singles, the 506 being manufactured for the broadcasting industry. I have sub 20hrs with ART-9 so far, but in line with many of you gents, I agree wholeheartedly that this is a significant cartridge at the price point, and also in comparison to far more costly ones. So far, I just feed it into my Clearaudio Basic phono stage, (which is staggeringly good value!) but in the next week a new Concert Fidelity SPA4c V2 will be installed which is a very concise amplifier. We used this at T.H.E show to much praise. (Disclaimer; I distribute Concert Fidelity products in the UK, but I am not here to 'promote' their products). 

I did have some concerns over matching the ART-9 with the 12" SAEC, as the '9' is fairly compliant, but it seems that there are no issues at all to worry about and it tracks extremely well even at inner groove. It has a very concise and clean sound once the set up is perfect, and I did spend many many hrs working on the CAD model to ensure geometry was correct, and it pays me back each time I have played an LP so far. Once the plinth design and materials are finalised and machined / built, the ART-9 will be well past 100hrs use and the CF stage will also be in use, so there is more to come from this little beauty. 

VTF seems good around 1.7 - 1.75 gms for me, how does this compare for other users here? Also, the CF stage offers 100 or 200 ohm settings ( +30 & 50 ohm), I start out with 100 AT recommend to begin with though..

ATB,
Paul.

I've found that the 100 ohm setting is the right setting for my ART-9 as well.

I've not played records for a few weeks, so taken was I by the CD player I installed the two SR Black fuses into the player and  they broke in.  I just wanted to keep listening to CD's. Hard to tear yourself away when CD's sound THAT good. 

I had a couple of friends over last night for a listening session, both of whom knows my system really well.  About half way through the session they wanted to switch to the turntable.

The first thing I threw on was an excellent stereo recording of one of Cal Tjader's Latin albums. The percussion was so natural sounding along with Tjader's vibes, it sounded as though Tjader's group was in the room and across the sound stage --- front to back, side to side and floor to ceiling. Simply amazing at the ART-9's price point.

I can say that the ART-9 has stayed right up there with the very significant improvement made in the CD player. Wow! What a good buy (in high-end terms) the ART-9 is. Its a bargain considering what I does (or doesn't do.) One thing it does the best is to stay out of the way of the music. 

ps68 ... After around 50 hours of break-in the cartridge really gets going. 

Happy listening ...

Where is the best place to buy one? LPGear says they are out of stock.....??

^^^ I think Ebay has some sellers in Japan marketing them on Ebay.  Several members here have bought that way with no problems. Not sure if they warrantee them though. 

Here's one on Ebay at an excellent price:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-new-Audio-Technica-MC-dual-moving-coil-Cartridge-AT-ART9-/262224630473...

Good luck ...

^^^ Also, are you sure LP Tunes is sold out? I went to their site and see no indication that the ART-9 is sold out. Could it be that they've restocked??