Audio Technica ART1

[Mike]

Mike, bookmark this page right now! http://www.cartridgedb.com/

Done!

[MartinT]

What a fab database!

[Mike]

Well I think the ART1 has arrived, there was a card from the post office through the door, but I was in bed! The last 24hrs have been a nightmare.

I was on on-call on Thursday and got a call at 6pm (I hadn't even made it home) - got to bed at 11:30 this morning! Feeling a bit like I've been through a meat grinder at the moment, it's just gone 6pm and I've been up for about 15mins. I'm utterly bolloxed.

[hifi_dave]

That's all very well but you should have collected the ART-1 by now. You need to get your priorities sorted - hi-fi then sleep.

[Mike]

Err... I'll get my coat.

[NRG]

I know how that feels Mike, I used to work a shift pattern that included nights so I changed to what I thought would be a more sociable job...but I had to be on call...it was a killer!

[DSJR]

Marco, as you summise, the "problems" with late eighties cartridges were often due to reviewer bias and the turntable systems most often used (in the UK at any rate...).

The Art 1 acquired its notoriety in the UK by a certain Chris Frankland as I recall, as the only other cartridge that could be discussed in the same breath as Glasgow's (Supex made) finest... Unless I'm mistaken, we were using Dynavector XX1's in ARO's and getting a pretty good sound from them at the time.

Again, IIRC, when we fell foul of the Linn dealer purge of the early nineties, we started selling Koetsu's and Dynavectors instead of Troika's etc..

One other problem, especially if you re-wind further to the late seventies, most of these far eastern moving coils were quite young in the learning curve (Ortofon were re-packaging old designs in new bodies to start with as I remember) and their performance was a bit "lumpy" to say the least. The old AT33 had great top but soft bass, although I suspect the PTG would be a far better animal due to newer design thinking and a better tip.

Talking of tips, the profile on many of the fancy ones treads a very fine line (ouch! sorry ). many of the early Shibata's weren't quite as wonderful as they were cracked up to be and I've already learned recently that some pressings DEFINITELY prefer a conical or "pseudo-eliptical" type. Some early fine-line/Shibata types suffer terrible surface noise which no amount of tweaking can fully cure. I think that the current versions of these - the excellent ML and Shibata 3 types may have got this sorted by now.

Final comment - Interesting that the OC9 and relatives can sound awsome on a good turntable (truthful and pretty accurate rather than warm and romantic), yet it's the well loved Koetsu's and their Supex ancestors which sound as dull as ditchwater, even in a modern turntable system...

[Marco]

Good post, Dave. Trouble is, what exactly does "warm and romantic" really mean?

I often think these days that it's anything which doesn't quite fit the 'modern sound' of fast, bright, forward, or "crisp", with 'superb clarity' (as I described elsewhere), that is currently commercial and 'fashionable', rather than it being intrinsically "warm and romantic".

For example, would you describe the M3D (properly set-up and partnered) or Croft amplifiers as "warm and romantic", or just simply 'natural' sounding and 'unforced'? For me it's most definitely the latter.

I wouldn't describe the DL-103SA as "warm and romantic" either, or my TD valve amp or Tannoys...

Some old equipment does *genuinely* fit that description, but these days I think that there's a tendency to apply such terms to vintage gear when it really isn't deserved, simply through a lack of proper experience.

Marco.

P.S Mikey, hope things look up soon - hopefully when the stylus of your ART1 hits the grooves!

[Mike]

P.S Mikey, hope things look up soon - hopefully when the stylus of your ART1 hits the grooves!

Well it's arrived, I picked it up from the post office this morning on the way out to another 'call'. Just having a flying visit to refill the old flask then I'm off again. It'll be an 8am to midnight day today. Tomorrow will be a 5:30am start right through till midnight again! No rest for the wicked, eh?

I won't be moaning about when payday come though....

Laterz...

[DSJR]

Good post, Dave. Trouble is, what exactly does "warm and romantic" really mean?

I often think these days that it's anything which doesn't quite fit the 'modern sound' of fast, bright, forward, or "crisp", with 'superb clarity' (as I described elsewhere), that is currently commercial and 'fashionable', rather than it being intrinsically "warm and romantic".

For example, would you describe the M3D (properly set-up and partnered) or Croft amplifiers as "warm and romantic", or just simply 'natural' sounding and 'unforced'? For me it's most definitely the latter.

I wouldn't describe the DL-103SA as "warm and romantic" either, or my TD valve amp or Tannoys...

Some old equipment does *genuinely* fit that description, but these days I think that there's a tendency to apply such terms to vintage gear when it really isn't deserved, simply through a lack of proper experience.

Marco.

P.S Mikey, hope things look up soon - hopefully when the stylus of your ART1 hits the grooves!

It's difficult for me to put into words what I hear and have heard, but warm and romantic in a cartridge is sort of a well damped but still woolly sounding bass up/treble down balance, low surface noise and a "soft" presentation. Old koetsu rosewoods and Onyx models did this - totally wrong but utterly "nice" sounding ("nice" being non-descript blandness...). The DL103 is actually quite "flat" in response and end-of-side is only going to drop the extreme top by a couple of db, which would still be better than many better tipped models IMO.

Having heard many amps over the years (and owned a good few), I'd suggest the Quad II's as a "classic" warm-n-valvey sound. My Croft in current trim ain't like that at all - a bit bright toned if anything, but I love it to bits.. You're welcome to disagree, but the bridged Crown D 60's surprise me still by reproducing quite clearly all the differences I've made further back and the good measured spec they've always had must indicate they're doing something right into the easy load they're driving.

The M3D as I remember it was a big-n-bold sound and the huge cantilever didn't bode too well for good high frequency tracking or low record wear, but the N21 stylus I have is rather finer (I don't know if the Shure original is similar) and the lower treble suckout that characterises many mm style pickups doesn't seem such a problem in this system. Bearing in mind that most LP's are/were cut with some upper-mid and treble lift to liven the sound up, the rather "stripped" balance of a typical AT OC9 or similar (or Dynavector 17D series) is probably just reproducing what's actually there on the record - the Decca's do it too, but even better - what a well sorted Decca can do for good music is something else