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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
lewm
13,012 posts
 
Chakster, Thanks for the response.  The circuit looks very simple, which is good. I have no idea why they call it a "Diamond" transistor, but that's marketing-speak anyway.

I wonder a little bit how they achieve two different gain profiles (one for MM and one for MC) in such a simple circuit.
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
Just read @chakster 's link to JLTI. One point I found curious. 
"Optimizing Moving Magnet cartridges can go as low as 2K Ohm...The rule is simple, the lower the Load Value, the higher the damping. Most cartridges are listened to under-damped and you can benefit from listening to optimised damping." 

If I understand, this suggests that with MM carts you will want to experiment with going from 47k down to 2k or somewhere along that range. The GIANT thread here on MM implies that consensus view on changing away from 47k is in the other direction up to 100k or even more. 

So as Keenan Thompson would sing, "What's Up With That?, What's Up With That?" Cheers,
Spencer
melm
1,074 posts
 
I found this thread very useful when I contemplated a new cartridge and landed on the ART-9.  A plea then to get back on topic so that it may prove useful to others thinking about cartridges.

There are plenty of other venues to discuss electronic units, or a new thread can be started.


chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@sbank 

If I understand, this suggests that with MM carts you will want to experiment with going from 47k down to 2k or somewhere along that range. The GIANT thread here on MM implies that consensus view on changing away from 47k is in the other direction up to 100k or even more.

Right, for MM cartridges the 100k is universal and in most cases much better than standard 47k. All my MM cartridges sounds better at 100k.  

As for the MC and MM/MI:
In conversation with Joe Rasmussen of the JLTi i've learned this: 

"Do not be afraid to do the opposite, for example, find the resistance 
of the cartridge's coil, it is usually in the specs. Now multiply that with about 1.6x and find the resistor value near that. Rather than unloading by going high, this in fact causes the coil to produce more current and hence this introduces electromechanical damping - the output will be lower, so keep that in mind, and  explore the final value, deciding by listening. For example, my Benz MC is 38 Ohm (38R) and I am using 68R load resistors. Yet a friend used nominal 47K and never tried my recommendation, so don't be afraid to try 'electromechanical damping' as it too can be tuned and  you may like it also, even possibly better. A friend with a Grado Platinum MI cartridge ended up using 2K2  resistors (2K1 when in parallel with 47K). I think the DC resistance is 600R. He  said it was like getting a more expensive cartridge. With an Ortofon Jubilee with 6R coil, we gradually went lower and lower until 10R and the owner went Wow!"  

P.S. It was a pleassure to deal with Joe Rassmussen, i ended up with a bunch of resistors he gave me (and RCAs) to experiment with different cartridges and a custom JLTi phono stage which is reasonably priced! I'm sure Joe can answer all the questions by email.    
lewm
13,012 posts
 
I have a great deal of respect for Joe Rasmussen and for Allen Wright before him.  It is ironic to note that Allen espoused the idea of using a 47K load on LOMC cartridges (which I too have found go be worth trying).  Now here we have Joe espousing a much different sort of heresy, in fact a more controversial one.  Frankly, it is a physical fact that using a 2K load on most MM cartridges, which typically have about 1000X more inductance than a typical MC, would result in a high frequency roll-off well within the normal range of human hearing and well below 20kHz.  So, if your MM cartridge has some really annoying hf characteristic that you would like to "damp" or tame, then maybe you'd like a 2K load.  Otherwise....NOT.  And where the heck did he get "1.6" as the multiplier in his little formula for selecting a load resistor for an MM?  Since I know JR knows more about this stuff than I do, I have to wonder how he justifies his advice.  It is not sufficient to talk about "damping".

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