Analog Corner

The Fuuga outputs 0.35mV (50mm/s, 0–peak, 45°) and has a desirably low impedance of 2.5 ohms at 1kHz. Its claimed channel separation is >27dB at 1kHz, and its compliance a low 7×10^–6cm/dyne at 100Hz. Appropriately, given its low compliance, the Fuuga has a relatively high mass of 15gm. Its tapered cantilever is of A2017 aluminum alloy, to which is fitted an 8 by 40"µm parabolic hybrid (ie, hyper-elliptical) stylus of pure diamond. The recommended vertical tracking force (VTF) is 2.0–2.2gm. The Fuuga is imported by Sakura Systems (which also imports 47 Laboratory), and distributed in North America by AudioArts (footnote 3).

Thoroughly Modern Miyabi: For $8950, you're entitled to superb build quality. The Fuuga delivers. It exhibited a stylus rake angle (SRA) of 92.43° with the tonearm parallel to the record surface. (I listened to it in the Kuzma 4Point, Graham Engineering Elite, and Swedish Analog Technologies arms.) With the cantilever visually perpendicular to the record surface, I measured channel separations of 29dB (L–R) and 28dB (R–L). I didn't adjust if further.

The best way to describe the Fuuga is as a modernized Miyabi. About the Miyabi 47 cartridge, I wrote in this column, in October 2006:

I found it big, bold, nuanced, surprisingly well-detailed, rich and chocolatey in the mids, and smooth up top. It wasn't the last word in air and detail on top, but it was so well balanced, so easy to listen to, so surprisingly fast for what it did deliver in that region, that I didn't notice the loss of air and resolution at the very top.

The Fuuga missed nothing in air and extension on top, yet retained all of the Miyabi 47's most enticing qualities. It was silky and smooth overall, with a still-rich midrange. The bottom end was well developed and extremely well controlled, though a few other cartridges can push lower-bass extension and dynamics and textural production to higher levels.

The Fuuga's tonal balance struck an essentially neutral pose, and its handling of transients, and especially vocal sibilants, yielded both detail and smoothness. There was zero harshness and/or hardness, but neither did it sound soft or romantic as it effortlessly presented soundstages of generous size.

The Fuuga was not as "rich and chocolatey" as I remember the Miyabi 47 sounding, nor did it sound as rich as, say, Miyajima Laboratory cartridges generally are—or, for that matter, Ortofon's Anna. It was silkier and sweeter than either the Ikeda KAI or the Lyra Atlas, perhaps due to its aluminum-alloy cantilever and less severe stylus profile (just guessing). And if you ask me what the hell "chocolatey" sounds like, ask a wine critic what asphalt tastes like.

The Fuuga didn't resolve quite as much spatial and transient information as the Ikeda KAI or the Lyra Atlas, or perform with the same blazing speed, but it more than compensated for that with its startling macrodynamic slam, effortless dynamic scaling, and an overall transparency that increased my feeling that I was listening to live instead of recorded music.

The Fuuga was full of surprises. When I thought a recording's dynamic limits had peaked, a drumstroke or other event would occur that drove the SPL beyond my expectations. Sometimes, when I thought I'd heard the upper-frequency limit of a familiar LP, the Fuuga surprised me with a silky stratosphere above that, minus even a hint of edge, etch, or stridency. And it was equally effective with every genre of music.

I have to stop here, to leave room for another winning cartridge, but I plan to revisit the Fuuga next month. Many late-night, almost-all-night listening sessions have told me that the Fuuga is, without a doubt, among the handful of highest-performing, most-enjoyable cartridges I have heard. If you get to try one, you'll hear the difference between a good transducer and one that makes a coherent statement of both tonal neutrality and unsurpassed musical beauty.

Air Tight PC-1 Magnum Opus
At $15,000, Air Tight's PC-1 Magnum Opus moving-coil cartridge joins Clearaudio's Goldfinger at or near the top of the cartridge price heap. Like previous Air Tight cartridges, it's built to the specifications of company co-founder Atasushi Miura by his friend Mr. Matsudaira, who builds and markets cartridges for My Sonic Lab (footnote 4).

What accounts for a price that many would describe as outrageous? Two specifications offer a clue: The PC-1 Magnum Opus's internal impedance is an ultralow 1.4 ohms, yet its output is a generous 0.45mV. That combination usually means very few turns of coil wire to ensure a very low moving mass, and very powerful magnets—in this case, neodymium 50 (the strongest neodymium currently available is graded 52). The benefits of combining low moving mass with a real-world output level should be obvious to all readers of "Analog Corner." The only possible disadvantage is the need to load the cartridge at well under 100 ohms.

The only other cartridge line I know of that manages this combination of ultralow impedance and generous output is from Kubotek's Haniwa Audio Systems. These are also built by Matsudaira, but for another of his friends: Dr. Tetsuo Kubo. I've just received the latest version of the Haniwa, and will report on it soon.

Ultralow-impedance cartridges are ideal for current-gain phono preamps such as the B.M.C. Phono MCCI or the intriguing MR Labs VERA 20. Unfortunately, I had neither in-house for these listening session, but the Air-Tight cartridge matched well with Ypsilon Electronics' VPS-100 Mk.2 phono stage and MC-10L step-up transformer, the latter's secondary winding loaded with 15k ohm nude Vishay resistors.

The PC-1 Magnum Opus's other features and specs include: a semi-line-contact stylus (dimensions not specified), a cantilever of pure boron, frequency range of 10Hz–50kHz, channel balance of <0.5dB/1kHz, and channel separation of >30dB/1kHz. The PC-1 Magnum Opus weighs 11gm, has a compliance of 8×10^–6 cm/dyne, and is designed to track at 2–2.3gm.

Like the Fuuga, the PC-1 Magnum Opus is impeccably built and carefully QC'd: Placing the tonearm parallel to the record surface produced an SRA of 92°, and with the PC-1's cantilever perpendicular to the record surface, I measured a precise 31dB crosstalk in both directions—a first, in my experience.

While the Fuuga wasn't exactly reticent or stingy in terms of dynamics or bottom-end extension, switching to the far more expensive PC-1 Magnum Opus produced an adrenaline rush of dynamic energy, exuberant slam, and—especially—low-frequency weight, texture, and richness. The Magnum Opus didn't produce the Fuuga's beauty or sheen, but from top to bottom, it dug deeper and produced rounder, fuller images and greater three-dimensionality solidity. It was a big, generous sound that was 100% free of mechanical artifacts or tonal anomalies. And at this price, a cartridge had better be damn near inaudible.

With the Fuuga, I'd greatly enjoyed the sonically spectacular AAA reissue of Sam Rivers's Contrasts (LP, ECM 1162). So I was surprised by how much more the PC-1 Magnum Opus had to offer on the bottom, both from Dave Holland's double bass and, especially, the depth and power of Thurman Barker's fierce, panned drum thwacks and cymbal strokes. The word that immediately came to mind for the Air Tight's bottom end was ferocious: unyielding and fully controlled.

While my previous encounters with Air Tight and My Sonic Lab cartridges had always revealed a burnished top end, the PC-1 Magnum Opus didn't. Its sound was "whole" from top to bottom: rich on top, too, and fully extended. When I played an original "six-eye" of the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out (LP, Columbia CS 8192), the cymbals sizzled, and not all that sweetly—as you'd prefer if you wanted to hear the real deal. The Air-Tight's top end was ultrafast and detailed, but unmarred by etch. And, like the Fuuga, it sailed precisely and smoothly through vocal sibilants.

The more costly PC-1 Magnum Opus produced more subtle attacks overall, slightly more generous sustains, and more graceful decays, easily heard from Brubeck's piano and Paul Desmond's alto sax in "Strange Meadow Lark," which blossomed and bloomed with the airy ease their playing deserves.

Like the Swedish Audio Technologies tonearm ($28,000), Air Tight's PC-1 Magnum Opus cartridge justifies its price of $15,000. Together, they cost precisely what my Saab 9-3 Turbo-X cost me in 2008. You can say that's ridiculous, and I won't argue. But if someone can deliver this level of sonic excellence for a whole lot less, they'll make legions of vinyl fans very happy. There's a lot more locked in the grooves of your LPs than you might think, just waiting to come out and play.

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Footnote 3: US distributor (2015): AudioArts, 210 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Tel: (212) 260-2939. Web: www.audioartsnyc.com/

Footnote 4: Air Tight, A&M Limited. US distributor (2015): Axiss Audio, 17800 S. Main Street, Suite 109, Gardena, CA 90248. Tel: (310) 329-0187. Web: www.axissaudio.com