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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
avanti1960
1,497 posts
 
Everyone who has experience with this cartridge reports how "great" it sounds, how "dynamic" and that it portrays musical performances as "real" and "live".  Also mentioning comparisons and that it sounds as good or better than cartridges costing up to 5X as much.  
While listening to it for the past few weeks I agree that it sounds "great" but was struggling to equate what I was hearing to "why" it sounds so great.  I believe I have found the answer.  
This cartridge is extremely clean sounding.   No excessive edges, noises, or strident harshness.  The effects while listening would seem subtle, kind of like drinking purified water- you notice nothing out of the ordinary.  But try a drink of some bad tap or well water and you immediately notice the difference and it reflects in the quality of the purified water.  
I swapped in my well broken in Ortofon 2M black for a bit and was literally shocked at how noisy and edgy it sounded in comparison to the ART9.  I used to love the sound of that cartridge but what once was extended treble and air instantly became excessive noise and edginess.  I literally could not tolerate it knowing how clean the ART9 sounds.  
While the tonality and transparency of the ART9 may or may not be fully developed after ~ 20 hrs and seems a little soft, less than my ideal, i could live with this as a small price to pay for the clean, pure sound that it produces.  I haven't heard vinyl sound any cleaner.   
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa OP
4,867 posts
 
Avanti ...

In addition to why the ART-9 doesn't call attention to itself, I think  you've also hit on the reason mono records sound so good when played using the ART-9.  It just seems to extract more information from deep inside those mono grooves. When it comes to mono playback, the AT OC-9 MKIII was great, but the the ART-9 is on steroids. 

As things progress with the system, I keep wondering how much more information we can extract from vinyl grooves and digital bytes.  For someone so technically ignorant as myself ... (I'm still amazed that airplanes can fly without propellers), I continue to shake my head in amazement. 

Kudos to the engineers and tinkerers who make this possible. 
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@avanti1960

I swapped in my well broken in Ortofon 2M black for a bit and was literally shocked at how noisy and edgy it sounded in comparison to the ART9.

You are comparing apples and oranges. Try to test AT’s own top of the line MM design from the golden era (AT-ML180 or AT-ML170) against your new ART9 and then you can make a decision what it the best (MM or MC).

The ortofon 2m is not in the same caregory ar all, personally i think it’s a rip-off compared to top vintage mm carts available nos for half of the price of ortofon 2m.
pani
1,219 posts
 
@avanti1960 I know that the ART-9 will sound more tonally saturated after some more breakin but still here are few things I would point out:

1. Comparing MM and MC, in many cases MM can sound richer and smoother in frequency response. Apart from the fact that MC carts can have a rising HF and such, the phono stage also plays an important role. Most phonostages sound more graceful and colorful with MM carts due to lesser gain stages. 

2. I have used the Lehmann blackcube SE. It is a very good phonostage for the price. The only area which I was not very excited was about tone colors. It sounded a bit grey. Otherwise it sets a very high benchmark for other phono stages under $1k. 

3. Dynavector has a bit of that rosy tint in its tones till one gets to the level of Tae katora rua.

All this is not be taken as an excuse for what the ART-9 sounds like but more like an fyi which you may use to understand the system balance. After all every system is designed around some associated components in the chain. When a new gear is introduced to that system and that too something of a higher degree of performance, it may need some extra level of involvement in terms of matching it to the rest of the system. I hope you the ART-9 allows to remain excited about it through this process
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
To get the best from MM cartridge we have to take care not only aboput phono Cable Capacitance, but also about Load Resistance. Try to load MM cartridge higher than standard 47k ohm, using Naked Foil Vishay 100k ohms audio resistors (from Texas Components). Most of the MM cartridges sounds much better at 100k ohm. This upgrade cost nothing (about $36 for Vishay resistors + soldering), but it will give you the best upgrade for the money you have ever tried for MM cartridges. Vintage MM cartridges are much better anyway. This is where they become competitive with most of the MCs imo. So i will second that JLTi phono stage (under $800 now) is the best for experiments with load resistors as you can simply soldeging them in RCA plugs and easily change (plug-in or plug-out) by going higher from 47k or even lower. Same with LOMC cartridges (end a bunch of R of different values) as the JLTi is a high gain stage designed to work with 0,02 mv MCs and higher.
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