Audio Technica MC advice

[graham67]

Nice one jac. in my experience, AT carts really do benefit from running in so i have no doubt it will sound even better soon. I feel your pain on mounting. Today i fitted an OC9 on my audio note arm Three with gossamer thin wires. Big injection of nerves needed

[chipcalzada]

Great review, I was considering getting a Hana SL as my next upgrade but after reading your observations I'm now considering the ART 9 since I'm a big fan of AT.

[Jac Hawk]

Choosing the "right" cartridge is like other hifi equipment very subjective, so once you have achieve a base level of quality i think the waters start to get very murky, as what i might find appealing someone else wont, my advice will always be to hear one if you can

[chipcalzada]

Fair point. It just seems logical for me to consider the Art 9 as my next cart upgrade since my last 2 carts have been AT's. In my imagination, the Art 9 does everything my AT33 PTGii does well, but much better.

[carruthersesq]

Hi Mike
How is the Art9 settling in now it’s been mounted for a few weeks? Is it getting better and better?

[Jac Hawk]

Hi Mike
How is the Art9 settling in now it’s been mounted for a few weeks? Is it getting better and better?

Ok so i'm not going to try and be all wine critique on you, basically when i first put the Art 9 on and got it set up just right, which was straight forward enough if a bit fiddly due to the body of the cart not being threaded it was marginally better than the Ortofon VMS30 mk2 it replaced, nothing you could put your finger on just the whole presentation was better. Obviously i'd read that this cart needed about 30 + hrs of run in time for it to shine and i knew the VMS30 was itself a damn good cart, so i wasn't too bothered that the difference wasn't night and day.

My taste in music is basically anything apart from classical, so Jazz, Blues, RnB, Pop, Rock is what i play and i selected 4 different LP's that i know very well and i've played each at about 5 to 8 hr intervals, these baseline LP's are as follows:

Dave Brubeck Time out
ZZ Top Eliminator
Womack & Womack Love Wars
Fleetwood Mac Rumours

As i said i know these LP's extremely well so any difference or change in the sound i'd notice. As i said straight out of the box the sound was marginally better, then after about ten hrs i noticed when listening to the Time out LP that the sound seemed to stretch beyond the room and the whole presentation took on a more 3D quality so that you could tell that the drums were at the back left, piano was mid right and Sax was front centre. After about 14 or 15 hrs i was playing The Chain off Fleetwood Mac rumours the bass was so well defined and deep with the bass drum sounding more realistic than i'd ever heard before and the bass guitar was delivered in bucket loads almost as if it was actually being played in front of me. Again at about 20 hrs listening time i noticed when playing ZZ Top Eliminator how musical it was and how the instruments sounded more realistic, Womack & Womack Love Wars title track just sounded bigger, better, sharper and more once again musical than i've ever heard before. To date i've probably got 34 hrs on the cart and i must say it doesn't disappoint high hats and cymbals are the most recent thing i've noticed to a point where they have a sustain that carries on and on and a more focused metallic quality without sounding harsh or unnatural.

To sum up, it's a fantastic cart no doubt about that at all and now it's run in some what, it's in a different league to my old VMS30. I know Audio Technica have quality issues with these and probably other carts so it pays to check them out for straight cantilevers and tip mounting as quickly as you can, but if you get a good one they are unbelievably good.

[carruthersesq]

Thanks for the update Mike. I think I will put it on my future journey along this madness we enjoy so much.

[chipcalzada]

AT does that really well. Cymbals and high hats sound so real, what is your VTA setting? Level or tail up? I've read that the AT PTGii benefits from slightly tail up, was wondering if its the same for the ART9.

[Jac Hawk]

AT does that really well. Cymbals and high hats sound so real, what is your VTA setting? Level or tail up? I've read that the AT PTGii benefits from slightly tail up, was wondering if its the same for the ART9.

with the Audiomods arm you can adjust the VTA on the fly and to be honest I’ve tried flat all the way through to tail up and to be totally honest I don’t see a massive difference.

[bosa]

Glad you’re enjoying it. Some people seem to think that the Art9 needs 200 hours on it to fully bed in but I found after about 50 hours it was great and did not improve significantly after that. I agree that nuts and bolts are fiddly and I couldn’t use my Soundsmith easy bolts as they were too short.

Enjoy.