AT ART 1000 vs London Reference vs Ana Mighty Sound 103.3

I have eagerly desired to hear the ART 1000 every since I first heard about (2016?) and finally I decided to have one sent out to me to satisfy my curiosity. I have read many things about this unique design, all good. People have compared its dynamism to the London, going as far as to state that it's capable of explosive dynamics. I listened to the unit on my Technics SL 1200 GAE with both my AMR PH 77 (MU 6900 tubes and AMR TriCore Capacitors installed) and my SPL Phonos. I used the LP Gear Zupreme headshell and the Audio Technica AT-LH 18/OCC headshell.

First off this cartridge in the AT headshell is a thing of beauty, a real functional piece of art (no pun intended :). I literally took photos of it on my TT as it just looked so gorgeous.

The ART did not take to the LP Zupreme very well with the sound becoming a bit cooler and taking on an almost strident nature. 
 
I found the ART to be a very fluid and refined cartridge, it reveals a massive amount of information from the groove. All in all I spent about a solid 20 or more hours intensely listening and fine tuning the cartridge to reveal the best it had to offer. It is a bit to the right of neutral, i.e. I find it to be a bit warm and it does instill a bit of lushness to the music. This may be welcome in some systems that may err to the left of neutral or are a bit sterile. 

I listened to music by Jacintha (Fire and Rain, James Taylor Tribute), Julie London, Dianna Krall, Chasing the Dragons Espana, Joss Stone, Stevie Ray Vaughn (45, Couldn't Stand the Weather from the 12 album boxed set), Stacey Kent and many others. 

It sounded lovely, and that's where I started having issues. I simply could not become engaged with the music that I know so well. My 103R is engaging, my 103.3 is engaging as is my London and Anna. The Art caused me to sit there and listen and wait and wait and wait for the magic. It never happened. I wanted to like this cartridge so so much but in the end I simply could not connect with its take on the musical spectrum.

I compared it to the London and let me go on record and state that if anyone tells you that this cartridge has London like dynamics, don't ever listen to anything they convey to you concerning hi end audio without listening for yourself. It is NO WHERE near the London as far as dynamics, immediacy or aliveness. It is more refined than the London but worlds away from that live feel that the London can so easily evoke. 

Comparing the ART to the 103.3 and 103R I found the 103R to be a bit rough sounding in direct comparison and yet, it makes my foot tap and makes me smile. The 103.3 does what the 103R does only so much better and far more refined. At the end of the day the 103.3 was preferred (for my ears), it simply plays with nearly the same level of refinement as the ART, but not quite, and yet the openness and aliveness it presents is far more engaging. I found myself leaving the 103.3 on for longer periods of time during my comparative cartridge swap outs.

I would sum it up as follows; I find that the ART has a sort of hi-fi-ish sound. It makes the music sound a little processed to my ears. Some people like this sound, I am not one of them. I would attribute this same quality to the Air Tight PC 1 Supreme, but not the PC 1. I find that the PC 1 Supreme has that same sort of hi-fi-ish sound where as the standard PC 1 does not and to my ears, sounds better than the Supreme. 

All in all this is a beautifully made device that will, I have no doubt, sound sublime in some systems and to some ears. Even though it is ultimately not for me I think it is a great value as I could easily see some of the other manufactures charging $10K or more for this unit. 

I think I am going to send Francois another 103 and try a 103.4 with the silver coils to quench my curiosity :)

Hope this was helpful to someone. 

Thanks for reading.