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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
jollytinker
213 posts
 
I've thrown my hat into the ring too. Just purchased an ART9 from eBay.  about 12 hours on it so far and it's impressive, even out of the box. I'd call it an honest and precise sound, with admirable clarity and separation between instruments, and no particular weighting towards any one part of the spectrum. I don't hear an edginess in the top end, but just a compressed, over-damped quality that I assume will open up once the cart has more hours on it.  I'll check back in later with more details.  (I'm also breaking in new tonearm wire at the same time so that's contributing to the compressed sound).  

A couple of things so far: 
2Juki is amazing. I ordered the cartridge from him on Wednesday at the lowest available price on eBay. By Saturday afternoon I had it installed in my system (I'm in Boston, he's in Hong Kong).  Very happy with the service. 

about installing: the screws aren't as weird as they seem.  Yes you install them from the bottom up, but there's a trick. The supplied nuts have little slots in them on one side.  Make sure you put the slots facing up when you install the cart.  Once you have the nuts threaded on the screws, place the head of the supplied screwdriver in one slot and torque it just as you would a regular screw. It turns easily, and probably has less torque than a normal screw so it's a nifty design.  I had no trouble installing and adjusting this way.  

I'm hoping this cart will be better than my XX2 and my retipped Denon 103r, but not as good as my crazy expensive Zyx….


sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
@avanti1960  I wouldn't be too worried about the dynamics based on my comparison of ART9 to XX2, both were great in that regard and I would assume superior to the 20XL2. Both were fully broken-in when I heard them. 

@pani Thanks for clarifying. Nice rig, you should post a system with pics etc. System threads, evolving(or ever-evolving!) over time with comments from owners are one of my favorite aspects of Agon. Cheers,
Spencer
dodgealum's avatar
dodgealum
1,406 posts
 
Since there were no "professional" reviews of this cartridge I had to set my skepticism aside and take a leap of faith based on several positive reports posted here. While the A'gon can often be an instrument of hype, in this case the reverse was true. My impressions of the ART 9 line up with the early adopters...I am exceedingly pleased. I'm at around 75 hours now and it continues to improve, however slightly, with each passing groove. I think mine is nearly broken in and the sound is perfectly balanced and sublime. The line contact profile means careful attention to set up is more important than other cartridges and break in does seem to require some miles so be patient. Mine sounded good out of the box but pretty ordinary until I got to around 50 hours. Thanks again to Pani and Oregon for bringing this bargain to our attention.
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Avanti1960 1-2-2017
I have the loading at 100 ohms.... the dynamics are not as good as i thought they would be though compared to my dynavector 20X2L.
I would try a much higher value than 100 ohms. The need for heavy resistive loading is driven primarily by the sensitivity of the particular phono stage to radio frequencies, that can be introduced as a result of the resonant peak in frequency response that occurs at RF with LOMCs due to the interaction of cartridge inductance and load capacitance (load capacitance referring to the sum of the capacitances of the phono cable and tonearm wiring, and the input capacitance of the particular phono stage).

Several experts, including Keith Herron and Lyra cartridge designer Jonathan Carr, have stated that loading a LOMC with a lower resistance value than necessary can compromise dynamics. I’m running my ART9 with a Herron VTPH-2 phono stage using its "infinite loading" provision (which presents the cartridge with a load resistance value that is MUCH higher than even 47K), which draws essentially zero current from the cartridge, and just responds to the voltage it is putting out. Dynamics have been great!

Frank (Oregonpapa) has found 100 ohms to provide great results, but I note that his phono stage (the ARC PH-8) has a specified 3 db bandwidth of 400 kHz, which I believe to be exceptionally wide for a phono stage. The result very conceivably being that in the absence of that heavy load the phono stage and/or components further downstream may be exposed to greater amounts of energy in the RF region than would usually be the case. So depending on what phono stage you are using his results stand a good chance of not being applicable to your system.

Regards,
-- Al


avanti1960
1,496 posts
 
@pani thanks for confirming my suspicions. the edgy sound seems to be going away after another solid day of spinning records. it seems to be sounding much better all around and this is inspiring confidence.
i am using a lehmann black cube se ii on the 56db gain setting.
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@jollytinker thanks for the tip, i had no idea you could tighten the slotted nuts.
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@sbank thank you.
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@almarg i tried setting the resistance of my stage (lehmann black cube se ii) at 1Kohm initially but the treble was exceedingly bright. I can double back and see how it sounds now. I also have the option of adding my own resistors for values between 100 ohm and 1Kohm.

can the RF issue you are referring to be a source of hum? I notice a slight hum when standing over the speakers. ground wire is firmly connected as well as all cables.   I have never noticed a hum with any other cart among various LOMCs and MMs.  
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