Jan Allaerts cartridges

Only a handful of phono preamps (the Progressive Audio Phono 1 when carefully set up, the Jeff Rowland, a few others) can successfully cope with the Allaerts cartridges. Be careful when purchasing these cartridges to be sure that you have an adequate phono preamp (the FM 122, for instance, does not have an appropriate resistance setting for the Allaerts; many other preamps will make the Allaerts cartridges sound noisy, especially between tracks). But if you find the right combination, the dynamics (both inner and outer), the bass response, and the spatial representation will be stupendous.

FYI for anyone following this thread - only the top-of-the-line Allaerts ($6000) has an unusual load requirement of 845 ohms. The remainder of the line has a 100 ohm requirement with 150pF capacitance. BTW I noted that the boron-cantilevered MC1 was the "editor's choice" in HiFi Choice magazine's directory. Didn't see the actual review.

Recently spoke to Simon Yorke (the maestro turntable builder) in England. His personal cartridge favorite is the Jan Allaerts which he describes as "rich and full bodied - like a good claret". It is particularly synergistic with the Yorke S7 tt. Jan Allaerts is characterized as "a wacky Belgian who is into cartridges, like NASA is into space". I have not auditioned this cartridge myself

Allaerts may be a fine cartridge, but be prepared to wait for ages if you do a service by Mr. allaerts... that happened to an friend of mine, and thats why i'm so happy with my Hopper ! usually the Hopper is returned by Mr. vd Hul within 3 weeks ! whatever repair or mod. Solution ? buy two Allaerts...

Man of facts, Musikdok blasted a "settler" to my previous post in the form of a fact about the Allearts' cartridges: Allaerts suggests 845 Ohms for the MC2 Finish (8400 DM in Germany, but one of the best six cartridges in the world). The MC1 Eco (2200 DM) has a "normal" 100 Ohm requirement. But both of these cartridges are low output. With "normal" amplification from a very good to excellent phono preamp, they will disappoint--because the noise of the electronics will be greater than that coming from the disc (except on extremely high-quality Japanese pressings). You need a superior phono-stage for these cartridges to yield a good Signal-to-Noise ratio on normal pressings. Marlec, how did you end up speaking to Simon Yorke? He is a great talker. He also has fresh ideas, and plenty of good warm words to dress them in. Did he actually say that Allaerts is a "wacky Belgian"?