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Thread: One week on ... reporting in on the Miyajima Madake

  1. #1
    montesquieu Guest

    Default One week on ... reporting in on the Miyajima Madake

    Quite a few Miyajima fans here now so I thought I’d report on the Madake which arrived just over a week ago.

    The Madake is the one that uses bamboo in the cantilever .. specs are very similar to my previous Kansui, compliance is tightened a little (back more in the direction of the Shilabe.

    No point in re-iterating the history or technical details of the innovative cross-ring method it uses, lost of people have done that already such as the following:

    http://www.positive-feedback.com/Iss..._cartridge.htm
    http://www.miyajima-lab.com/e-stereo.html

    It all started well over four years ago now, when I had a visit from a Miyajima Waza. I was already familiar with the Miyajima mono models - by that time I’d owned the mono Kotetu, Spirit and Premium BE models (I was later to buy the top of the range Zero mono and a Premium 78 - the latter for playing 78s of course). But I hadn’t heard a stereo model. At the time I was running an Audio Note Io, this was a Kondo era cartridge, freshly rebuilt by Audio Note UK to Io2 specification - essentially they fit new gubbins using the original body/existing magnet assembly. I had a Kondo-era Audio Note S6c step-up to go with it, which as a step-up was superb.

    The sound from the Io/S6 combo, used in an Audio Note arm, was pretty much faultless. And yet … while the hifi attributes were all there, it wasn’t (for me) hitting the emotional spot. The Waza came on the same day as MartinT brought round his Aurorasound Vida. This combination, which while flawed (the Waza is no Io from a detail retrieval point of view) set me off on a whole load of changes, which resulted in the purchase of a Shilabe, then a Kansui, as well as a Vida and subsequently (several years later) the Madake and an EAR 912 control centre. Constants here - my TD124 MkII and vintage Tannoys/custom cabs of one sort or another (and valve pre-power natch).

    Back to the Madake … this came brand new via Hugo at Ammonite Audio. Out of the box I was a bit alarmed at it sounded not too clever at all. But it broke in pretty fast (I would say by about 10 sides in I was breathing a sigh of relief). I’m running it on the Ikeda IT-345-CR1 tonearm, which is fairly high mass for a nine-inch arm (similar to the FR64S), on the 18g Ikeda headshell, and its an absolutely perfect match. Initially it seemed sensitive to surface noise, more so than the Kansui which admittedly was superb in that area, but that has faded as break-in had progressed. (I probably have 50-60 hours on it now and I would say they are equal in this now).

    Loading I’m not sure about, I keep switching between the 12 ohm setting on the EAR 912 (which I think is about 200 ohms, or about what I used to use for the Kansui on my old Hashimoto HM-7 setup) and 40 ohms (about 500) both give great results but I think I’ve settled on the 40 ohm setting.

    In terms of listening I get the sense that the Madake has all of the Kansui’s way with detail, space, timbre, natural acoustic feel, and general ‘realness’, only a shade moreso. It's an incremental thing rather than night and day, but I’m very happy with it. Compared to my SPU Royal N, it has just as much oomph and excitement, but that shade more refinement. It pulls detail out of the groove without any fireworks or the artificial drama you get with some self-conciously ‘high end’ cartridges, and pulls the listener in to follow more of what’s going on musically.

    Thought I’d share a few pics of my Miyajima journey over the years, it’s far from complete sadly as I’m just not that organised. First pic is of the Madake itself.



    Zero on SME M2-12R



    Kansui, Zero and Premium 78 with a couple of SPUs



    Zero and Kansui in action



    Before the Shilabe got sold



    Shilabe and Zero, AT12P and Audio Note arm, with the Premium 78 at the side (plinth has now gone to Josie as my new one from Russ has replaced it).


  2. #2
    Join Date: Oct 2014

    Location: Lancing W. Sussex

    Posts: 116
    I'm Jack.

    Default

    Superb write up Tom. I particularly like your shot of the docking station for the 5 cartridges. Formidable (Fr)!

    Looking forward to my next visit..

    Jack NSM

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