@dover this voicing to specific requirements for these brands is what I had suspected as well. Then again I seem to remember one poster here suggested that AirTight doesn’t even bother to offer their cartridges for sale in Japan and leaves the home market to MSL. This suggests that any sonic differences would be negligable.
I recently had a good deal on a dealer demo Accuphase AC-6, which is another variation on the MSL theme. It has the impedance of Hyper Eminent (1.8 ohm), combined with the boron cantilever and output level (0.4 mV) of Ultra Eminent. This might suggests that sonically it sits somewhere between those two, but having heard neither of the MSL’s this is just speculation.
I like to think the AC-6 combines the best of both ’worlds’. Just kiddin’ of course, but it’s definitely a highly ’neutral’ (or ’balanced’ if you prefer) cartridge with an incredibly dynamic presentation. They do sell the AC-6 in Japan, perhaps because Accuphase as a more mainstream brand has an attraction to ’one brand’ customers, unlike an amplifier specialist like Airtight.
I recently had a good deal on a dealer demo Accuphase AC-6, which is another variation on the MSL theme. It has the impedance of Hyper Eminent (1.8 ohm), combined with the boron cantilever and output level (0.4 mV) of Ultra Eminent. This might suggests that sonically it sits somewhere between those two, but having heard neither of the MSL’s this is just speculation.
I like to think the AC-6 combines the best of both ’worlds’. Just kiddin’ of course, but it’s definitely a highly ’neutral’ (or ’balanced’ if you prefer) cartridge with an incredibly dynamic presentation. They do sell the AC-6 in Japan, perhaps because Accuphase as a more mainstream brand has an attraction to ’one brand’ customers, unlike an amplifier specialist like Airtight.