Audio Technica AT-ART1000X


Would I be crazy to mount a Audio Technica AT-ART1000X on my new Technics SL1300G? Will the SL1300G adequately allow the cart to sing? 

drambuiequillhill

Showing 3 responses by larryi

I have heard, and really liked, the ART 1000 cartridge.  I don't know if buying it will optimize your system performance in terms of bang for the buck, but I don't think your money would be wasted--you should be able to hear what that cartridge can do.

As long as the arm is compatible in terms of effective mass (in this case the arm should be heavy enough to work with a medium to low compliance cartridge) and is decent enough to not have bearings that rattle, you should be good to go.  Certainly the rest of system is good enough for you to appreciate what any cartridge is doing.  The ART1000x is low enough in compliance (the suspension is stiff), that it impart a lot of energy into the cartridge body which is then transmitted to the tonearm.  If that arm is not good at handling this vibrational energy (i.e., it doesn't damp the vibration well and drain that energy by transmitting it through the arm bearings into armpost and then into the armboard), that vibrational energy feeding back to the cartridge could muddle the sound or even cause some mis-tracking. 

The good news is that even relatively modest arms can do this job reasonably well.  I only heard truly gross mismatch when a friend temporarily mounted an Ortofon Windfeld cartridge on the arm of a $300 table.  The cartridge/arm combination exhibited inner groove distortion and a bit more fuzzy sound that went away when he mounted the cartridge on a much better arm.

I have heard the slightly older ART 1000 cartridge and it is among my favorites in sound quality and it is not as high priced as some of the others I like too.