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
Cool_jeeves, When you went from 100 to 30 ohms load, was there a subjective loss of gain from the cartridge, which is to say, did you have to turn up the volume a bit in order to get the same sound pressure levels in your room?  I ask because I think at a 30-ohm load, you may be attenuating the treble frequencies, and overall, as you drop the load impedance, the cartridge gets less and less able to drive the phono stage, which loses gain; some of the signal voltage is lost to ground.  You yourself mentioned that the treble was too energetic at 100 ohms and is more tame at 30 ohms.  You may like this effect, but it is an artifact of the impedance mismatch. I bet that as the cartridge breaks in, you will grow to prefer the 100 ohm load or higher.  On the other hand, some prefer the Denon DL103 at very low load resistances, where that cartridge should not really work well. So sometimes theory does not predict personal preferences.

Lewm - right on both counts. I had to turn up the volume slightly when shifting from 100 to 30. My gain is adjustable, but significantly upwards, and not in a small step, and right now I get the right volume at the 9am position and want to keep it that way. I also agree that when fully broken in, I will attempt reverting to 100 ohms. I will also entirely redo the cartridge and tonearm settings, to account for any small creeps (I particularly worry about the very stiff cardridge cables, which can cause small creeps of the cartridge which can slide inside the headshell no matter how tightly screwed).
j_damon ...

Nice analog rig you have there. If it uses a "flat" belt as opposed to a "round" belt, get the Origin Live custom belt. Its worth every penny and far more. You'll think you've upgraded a component ... its that good. 

Now you've really gotten me interested in the Herbie's mat. I just completed the system with Herbie's tube dampeners on all of the tubes.  Wow! Another cost effective upgrade and highly recommended for anyone running tube gear. 

Frank
Lewm, your input regarding the effect of cartridge loading is very interesting especially considering I am currently running a very interesting phono stage by EMIA.

This is an MM phono stage and a Slagle built SUT is being used for MC gain. The MM stage has an input impedance of 300 kohms (not the typical 47kohms). Now, when I use a SUT with 1:20 ratio, the reflected impedance seen by my ART-9 is about 750 ohms (300k/square of turns ratio). This is almost like not loading the cartridge at all. The ART-9 likes to be loaded at 250 ohms in general. 750 ohms is very high and while the effect is a sound that is very live, there is some loss of body in the tones. What do you think would be the right way to load the cartridge down ? Can adding capacitance be an option too ?
Frank, do not hesitate with herbies mat, you will thank me, I got his excellent II 2mm thickness. I have to measure the belts  and will be trying the origin belt, wondering if I should get 3, two for the motors that drive the flywheel and one for the platter, I'm thinking three...  I was also considering Herbies tube dampners as well. Never ends