Jan Allaerts cartridges

Dealer solicititations aside, it was also Mr. Dudley who reviewed the Allaerts in the recent Listener issue, and the entry level model at that. He considered it 'a truly great cartridge' at U.S. $1500. I would appreciate further comments being geared towards the Allaerts line only. Thanks!

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...