Gramophone Dreams #44: Audio-Technica, Goldring, LP Gear phono cartridges

June 28, 2023 / By mobanmarket

Someone once asked me, “If I buy your $90,000, 25W amplifier, what will I get that I am not getting with my $2000, 200W amplifier?” My answer was simple: “Goosebumps, tears, and smirking.” Great, well-tuned audio systems, at all price levels, give their owners less of the annoying and distracting stuff and more of the exciting and engaging stuff. Great systems offer more opportunities for smirking pridefully while listening to great recordings.

Sanford “Sandy” Gross, co-founder of Polk Audio and former CEO of GoldenEar Audio, has said that “in general, the best audio systems will sound more lifelike and will bring the listener closer to the performers and the performers will seem more alive in the room.”

A few weeks ago, I was playing Stravinsky Conducts Histoire Du Soldat Suite (LP, Columbia MS 7093) with Audio-Technica’s new AT-VM95E cartridge, which costs $49 ($69 after February 21; other prices listed here will increase, too; footnote 1), and wondering, did it ever sound this good with a Koetsu? With this cheap AT cartridge, the recording sounded so real, present, and compelling that my brain kept trying to remember how much more excitement or reality I got when I last played it with the $8495 Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum moving coil.

With the AT-VM95E, this Stravinsky sounded so good and so fundamentally correct, timbre- and tempo-wise, that it was doing what my friend Christopher Hildebrand of Fern & Roby says great audio systems do:

“With the best audio systems, the experience is what you take away with you, like what you feel when you leave an art exhibition that shifted your perspective on things you had stopped considering.” (Emphasis is mine.)

This month, without warning or forethought, simply by playing records with a gaggle of popular low-priced phono cartridges, I realized that some entry-level cartridges deliver spectacularly high levels of audio vérité. I also discovered that, unbeknownst to me, some under-$200 moving magnets outperform some exotic moving coils that cost 10 times as much.

I also rediscovered a mostly forgotten truth about what matters most in sound system design.

The Original Audio-Technica AT95E
It is my firm belief that the truest measure of audio quality is consumer consensus. And the best measure of this consensus—two measures, actually—is how many happy customers product has and how many pleasure-giving years it remains in production. Three of my closest friends still use the Quad ESL-57 electrostatic, a loudspeaker that was in production for 28 years (1957–1985). Two other friends still own an Audio Note (Japan) Ongaku amplifier, which has been in continuous production for 31 years (1989 –2020). The Koetsu moving coil cartridge has been in production for at least 40 years (1980 to the present). The BBC LS3/5a monitor speaker has been in continuous production, in various forms, for 45 years (1975 to the present). The Linn Sondek LP12 turntable has been in continuous production for 48 years (1972 to present). The Denon DL-103 moving coil has been in production for 58 years (1962 to present). The Ortofon SPU cartridge has been going for 62 years (1958 to present). The winner of this consensus contest is Paul Klipsch’s Klipschorn, at 73 years (1947 to present).

These are all extraordinary products, and I have owned every one of them except the Klipschorn. These numbers reflect immeasurable amounts of listening pleasure and pride of ownership.

Audio-Technica’s AT95E moving magnet cartridge belongs on this list. It was in production for 40 years; millions were sold before it was discontinued last year. Its replacement, the AT-VM95, looks to be around for another four decades.

During its 40-year life, the Audio-Technica AT95 generator has been used in an untold number of more expensive audiophile cartridges, including the Linn Basik, K5, and K9 cartridges. I spotlight these cartridges because Linn, a company with a sonic-aesthetic viewpoint to uphold, obviously felt that Audio-Technica’s bold, type-A personality showcased musical pace, rhythm, and timing (PRaT) in an easily demonstrable, customer-pleasing way. The AT95 lasted 40 years because its honest, not–hi-fi sound ropes listeners in and makes playing records something to look forward to.

I thought I’d launch my report on the AT-VM95 by refreshing my memory of the AT95. The first recording I played, with the standard elliptical-diamond stylus, was Lead Belly, Lead Belly’s June 15, 1949, performance at the University of Texas in Austin. Huddie Ledbetter (aka Lead Belly) died later that year; the recording was released in 1973 on Playboy Records (LP, PB-119). With the Audio-Technica AT95E, the sound of his voice and the room and the audience was so vibrant and lifelike that I felt I was witnessing an important moment in the life of the man I regard as America’s greatest folksinger. Listening to his “I Will Be Glad When I Get Home,” it seemed I was experiencing some of Huddie’s last words. The AT95E’s elliptical stylus cut straight to the sonic bone. I felt Lead Belly’s human presence and easily located recordist Alan Lomax’s microphone. The sound was no-frills clear and direct. The performance was intimate and heart-moving.

The AT95E was not brash or annoyingly overstated like Shure’s SC35C and M44-7 DJ cartridges. It displayed a more refined personality. It was detailed and colorful like more expensive cartridges, and it could swing better than my Ortofon 2M Red or beloved Shure V-15 Type III. The AT95E had power and punch, but it could also be suave and gentle.

The second record, Slim Harpo Sings “Raining in my heart …” (Excello LP-8003), sounded more enjoyably right than it had in years. When I lowered the AT95E’s stylus on “I’m a King Bee,” I knew right away: This is how this recording is supposed to sound. I could hear Slim at the microphone and sense the tape machine running. No digital I know, and few cartridges under $2000, could match the insightful tone-and-texture rightness of this $49.97 moving magnet cartridge.

The third record made me feel like I was losing my mind. Talk about PRaT, talk about lifelike tone, talk about excitement and engagement, talk about powerful bass. I played Stravinsky Conducts Histoire du Soldat Suite (LP, Columbia MS 7093) and my mind exclaimed, Wow! This is the best I’ve ever heard it.

In a million years, I would have never imagined that a 40-year-old, now-discontinued Audio-Technica AT95E would be assaulting me with this level of musical pleasure. However…

The system causing this remarkable joy consisted of the not-free Dr. Feickert Blackbird turntable with a 10.5″ Thomas Schick arm (replacing my Jelco now that Jelco has vanished), with the AT95E driving the MM phono stage in the $1595 Rogue Audio Sphinx V3 integrated amplifier powering the $1599/pair GoldenEar BRX loudspeakers. Amp-to-speaker cable was Triode Wire Labs American Series.

AT-VM95E vs VM95SH
According to Audio-Technica, the new AT-VM95E replaces the AT95E and AT95EX cartridges. The new cartridge offers a similar dual-magnet design but with a 0.3 × 0.7 mil bonded-elliptical stylus and “a new engine with a thicker coil” that delivers a higher (4.0mV vs 3.5mV) output voltage. Best of all, the VM series features threaded inserts (for mounting without nuts) in its standard polymer body. Dynamic compliance is 7×106 cm/dyne. Like its predecessor, the AT-VM95E stylus can be user-replaced or casually interchanged; in the case of the new cartridge, there are six AT-VMN95 styli, each with a different price and stylus profile, from $21 for the conical version and up.

I played Black Uhuru’s Sly & Robbie–produced 1981 album, Red (LP, Mango ZCM 9625), with the $199 AT-VM95SH, the top-priced VM95 model, which features a Shibata stylus. (The Shibata stylus is available as a replacement for $179.) The sound was very similar to that of the Ortofon 2M Black moving magnet: smooth, detail-rich, and spacious with a tendency toward glowing, radiating tones. The tracks “Puff She Puff” and “Sponji Reggae” sounded unusually silent in a black-background way that assured me the VM95E’s Shibata rock was correctly positioned in the vinyl’s slot. I worked extra-hard to dial in the azimuth, VTA, and VTF on a cartridge that cost just $199 because it was satisfying fun to put air around all that Shibata-tip detail. It was even more fun hearing that Mango LP sound so luxurious. The main difference between the 2M Black and the AT-VM95SH was that the AT cartridge had more push and bounce. It kept the beat and carried the tune better than the Black Ortofon, which dragged its hind paw while playing “Sponji Reggae.”

I played Red once more, this time with the $49 elliptical-stylus version of the VM95. Now the sound had even more pulse, presence, and genuine reggae-music energy. With the AT-VM95E, this album’s ganja-Rasta spirit was amped up further, drawing me into a night of bass-dosed dancehall dreams.

The verdict: The less-expensive, elliptical version made the Shibata-tipped version of the VM95 sound overly smooth and polite. I always haven’t loved Shibata styli; now I know why: It’s too pipe-n-slippers.

The AT-VM95C
I have a BFF relationship with the spherical-tipped Denon DL-103 moving coil, simply because it has never disappointed me while playing a record. The late Art Dudley campaigned for the spherical-tip cause, stating in Listening #186: “I continue to prefer the spherical experience—to me, it emphasizes musical content over air, allowing instruments and voices to sound more substantial, and music to sound, overall, less fussy than with other tip types.” (The emphasis is his.)

Footnote 1: Audio-Technica US, 1221 Commerce Dr. Stow, OH 44224. Tel: (330)686-2600 Web: audio-technica.com/en-us.

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