Phono Cartridge for $1,000.

Just received my Sumiko Blackbird from Upscale. Sounds fantastic. Had Clearaudio Virtuoso V2. The difference in the moving coil from the moving magnet is huge. Linda Ronstadt my favorite. She sounded good on the Virtuoso but really sounds fantastic on the Blackbird.

The Blackbird is a great cartridge, as long as your system leans on the warm side. I used one years ago.

Enjoy it. The Bird can get a little hot on the upper end-system dependent.

Be mindful not to have a unbuttoned long sleeve shirts or have a rag anywhere near the cartridge. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

I stand corrected on air core coil.
Thank you Chakster!

Anybody audition the new AT9xa

"Air core" refers to a coil wound around nothing but air.  So far as I know, the ART7, which I own and like very much, has an "amorphous core" Amorphous metal is an alloy with a non crystalline structure produced by ultra-rapid quenching (about 1 million ℃ per second) of molten alloy.  The penalty for using an amorphous core or an air core coil is reduced efficiency compared to using a coil with the same number of turns of wire around an iron core.  This is why the ART7 has much lower output than does the ART9.  I don't know about these two new models that bear the "ART9" prefix, but it makes sense that the low output version of the new ART9 would be the one with an air core coil.