Description: Low-output moving-coil cartridge, with "special metal" cantilever and bobbin, "specially designed" stylus, six-nines copper coils, samarium/cobalt magnet. Source impedance: 5 ohms. Recommended stylus pressure: 1.8–2.0gm. Compliance: N/A. Channel separation: 30dB or more at 1kHz. Frequency range: 20Hz–100kHz. Output: 600µV (1kHz 5cm/s). Channel balance: within 0.5dB at 1kHz. Recommended load: not specified.
Weight: Not specified.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 82410.
Price: $4000 (1998–2006). Retip & refurbish: $1800 (1998). Approximate…
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Michael Fremer wrote about the Koetsu Urushi Vermillion in January 2008 (Vol.31 No.1):
Some cartridge makers tout their technology and/or innovative build quality while others crow about their cartridges' great specs, Koetsu (footnote 1) thrives on mystique, artful presentation, and its reputation for extracting magic from LP grooves through the use of high-purity copper wire, exotic platinum-iron magnets, cartridge bodies of wood and stone, and Urushi lacquer finishes.
Although Koetsu's legendary designer-builder, Yoshiaki Sugano, passed away six years ago, his son, Fumihiko,…
Dense, compact, and built to run O-rings around the competition, SME's flagship turntable makes every other design I've encountered—with the possible exception of Rockport's System III Sirius—look almost homemade. I don't mean to insult the many fine, well-engineered designs out there, but I've seen nothing else to compare with SME's tank-like approach to spinning a record. Comparing the Model 30/2 to a tank isn't exactly fair: the machining is done to higher than mil-spec tolerances. I don't think anyone else building turntables today is capable of this level of construction quality, never…
And, of course, the four towers are easily locked down to prevent fluid spillage during transportation. A.J. Conti's Basis Debut uses a cartridge-based fluid-damping system that's quite effective in its own right, while Harry Weisfeld's TNT and HRX 'tables use air bladders, which must be carefully under-inflated to keep their resonant frequencies low enough to be effective. However, other than the air-suspension system used in Rockport's System III Sirius, SME's is the most effective isolating system I've seen.
The oversized (13", 17.6 lbs) platter rotates on a 6.75"-long, ¾"-diameter…
The combination of this tonearm, cartridge, and turntable produced a singularly neutral-sounding front-end. Music emerged from velvety quiet, jet-black backgrounds reminiscent of what the Rockport System III Sirius had produced. Bottom-end control and, especially, bass weight were remarkably solid and confident, with impressive pitch definition and dynamic control, and without romantic midbass overhang or warmth.
Those Sumiko boys listened well, but what I heard provoked as many questions as it answered. Was the Celebration sound I'd originally heard the actual sound of the cartridge,…
Losing the peaks radically improved the harmonic believability of instruments while accentuating differences in the high-frequency performance of cartridges. The high-frequency response characteristics of such top-of-the-line cartridges as Koetsus, Dynavectors, van den Huls, Benzes, Transfigurations, Clearaudios, Lyras, Grados, and others vary greatly. With the SME, even subtle tonal differences among cartridges registered; as with the Sumiko Celebration, I found myself surprised by the sounds of even more familiar cartridges.
Lyra's Helikon and Titan cartridges sound extremely neutral…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Belt-drive turntable with O-ring/fluid-damping suspension and three-phase, eight-pole motor with electronic motor controller. Speeds: 33 1/3, 45, 78rpm, all trimmable. Wow and flutter: not specified. Rumble: not specified. Included: soft dustcover, tools, gauges, strobe disc, other accessories.
Dimensions: 17.75" W by 8.67" H by 13.75" D. Weight: 94 lbs.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 0110.
Price: $25,000 without tonearm. Approximate number of dealers: 25.
Manufacturer: SME Ltd., Steyning, Sussex BN44 3GY, England, UK. Tel: (44) (0)1903…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Graham 2.2, SME IV.Vi tonearms; Lyra Helikon SL, Lyra Helikon mono, Lyra Titan (prototype), Audio Tekne MC-6310, Sumiko Celebration cartridges.
Digital sources: dCS Elgar Plus/Verdi/Purcell SACD, CD-to-DSD playback system; Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD player.
Preamplification: Hovland HP-100 preamp, Manley Steelhead phono preamp.
Power amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC-1 monoblocks, Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300.
Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Avanti III, Aerial Acoustics SW-12 subwoofer.
Cables: Phono: Hovland Music Groove, Audio…
"I remember Momma!"
That's what I used to yell whenever I removed my headphones after a long session of late-night Led Zep. They were Koss's big "DJ" hermetic-seal specials (footnote 1), the ones so beloved by FM DJs because the big plastic cups actually house gnarly-ass car stereo drivers that can blow your ear drums clean down into your throat with but a few milliwatts and have such a hellacious bass boost that they make even the squeakiest, wimpiest voices sound like Isaac Hayes to the tenth power.
It was that pair of Koss 'phones, plugged into a cheap JVC jambox that…
Still with me? An additional 6µF film cap per channel, the metal-can Frenchies I described earlier, is in series with the line-level output, which is simply paralleled with the headphone jack but muted whenever the headphones are plugged in. George Bischoff explains that the SHA-1 is designed to have an output impedance of 8 ohms with plenty of current drive for the 40 ohm Grado headphones when used as a headphone amp, but the line-stage configuration sports an output impedance of a half an ohm coupled with very little current drive, as most power amplifiers have high input impedances which…