I've thrown my hat into the ring too. Just purchased an ART9 from eBay. about 12 hours on it so far and it's impressive, even out of the box. I'd call it an honest and precise sound, with admirable clarity and separation between instruments, and no particular weighting towards any one part of the spectrum. I don't hear an edginess in the top end, but just a compressed, over-damped quality that I assume will open up once the cart has more hours on it. I'll check back in later with more details. (I'm also breaking in new tonearm wire at the same time so that's contributing to the compressed sound).
A couple of things so far:
2Juki is amazing. I ordered the cartridge from him on Wednesday at the lowest available price on eBay. By Saturday afternoon I had it installed in my system (I'm in Boston, he's in Hong Kong). Very happy with the service.
about installing: the screws aren't as weird as they seem. Yes you install them from the bottom up, but there's a trick. The supplied nuts have little slots in them on one side. Make sure you put the slots facing up when you install the cart. Once you have the nuts threaded on the screws, place the head of the supplied screwdriver in one slot and torque it just as you would a regular screw. It turns easily, and probably has less torque than a normal screw so it's a nifty design. I had no trouble installing and adjusting this way.
I'm hoping this cart will be better than my XX2 and my retipped Denon 103r, but not as good as my crazy expensive Zyx….
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I've got just over 40 hours on the ART9 now and it's beginning to open up as other posters here have mentioned. I liked it right off the bat but I do hear improvements now in the top end especially. Love the open, detailed and relaxed sound. To my ears the cartridge has the same profile that others have already described - concise, detailed and "correct."
Ultimately I plan to do some more detailed comparisons with my other carts but I committed the cardinal sin of changing a few things at once (phono stage, tonearm wire and the ART9.) All of them require between 50 and 100 hours to break in so I'm on a marathon record playing binge at the moment. I'll post more here when everything's burnt in and I have a better basis for commenting.
Pani - the Zyx is a universe premium. It's amazing but also so expensive (even if you get a deal on it) that it sort of requires you to get another cart as a 'daily driver'. The trouble there (and it's a first world problem if ever there was one) is that my other carts don't measure up after hearing the zyx uni. I'm using a Denon 103r and a Dyna XX2, both soundsmith retips, and an Auditorium 23 transformer with the denon. They are both very very good carts but the ART9 is already way more enjoyable to hear in my system.
So the question is - can the AT ART9 serve as a second cart to the Zyx, that's still relatively inexpensive compared to other contenders from Benz, Lyra, etc? So far so good.... |
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@avanti1960 I would agree with Frank on this - you need to give it more time. I noticed a real change in the sound right around 40 hours. Things open up and get clearer and airier. If you've come this far I'd give it even just 20 to 30 hours more before you send it to the cartridge drawer.
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@chakster you're building your argument on straw men. It is such a boring waste of time when you have to listen to some new cartridge that sounds awful when it’s new and doesn’t impressed you at all in the first 30 hrs. no one said that. Most say it starts out great and then gets better. That's what I experienced. You yourself wrote that break in makes sense. I agree with you. It's like a new guitar or a violin. It needs to be played a while before it hits its real potential. You stick with it because you can hear from the beginning that it's a good instrument, so it's worth the effort. Nothing strange about that. That said, I agree that this thread could/should be more than just cheerleading for the ART9. There's no professional review of this cart available (as imperfect as they often are) so it would be nice IMHO to have some attempts at objective description and comparisons with other carts. I will attempt to contribute to that myself when my ART9 and Doshi phono stage are... em... broken in. |
@avanti1960 when/if you put the ART9 back on your turntable, you might play around with the VTF a bit. I found that the cart began to lose its dullness around 40 hours as I mentioned above. But when I took off .1 grams of VTF (2.0 to 1.9) the dullness came back. I'm guessing it has to do with the suspension progressively loosening up. I hope you enjoy your Dyna in the meantime. |
I agree @chakster - this is what I tried to say earlier. But I have to wonder whether it changes from one cartridge to the next. If you read Arthur Salvatore's description of the Zyx Universe II, he's nearly in tears on first listening to it because the cart sounds so awful. And yet by 50 hours it's the finest cartridge he has ever heard. that's a pretty radical difference. One may or not agree with him in general but he does have a ton of experience and a highly resolving system. |
I have 55 hrs on the cart now with no major changes since the 40 hr mark. I was about to write a post here saying that the ART9 failed the piano test as @lewm put it about the Zyx. I had picked up a really clean Japanese pressing of Keith Jarrett's Koln concert, something I hadn't heard since I was a kid, but the piano sounded kind of funky. The percussive dynamics were there and it sounded like a real instrument in a real space, but the timbre was all wrong. The mid range and bass were sucked out and lifeless, as if it wasn't a very good piano.
I did some googling before I posted and I'm glad I did. Turns out - as I'm sure many here know already - that Jarrett requested a Bosendorfer concert grand that evening and got a baby grand practice piano instead, due to an error by the promoter. He said it sounded like a 'modified electric harpsichord'. His adjustment to that piano apparently accounts for the freshness of his playing that night, at least in part. So the ART9 not only did piano well, but it captured the idiosyncrasies of that instrument so effectively that I blamed it on the cartridge. ART9 1, jollytinker 0.
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update...
I've finally hit 100 hours on the ART9. No major news - no "oohs and aahs" as others have mentioned, and no big changes to the sound in the last 30 hours or so. That said, the cartridge is extremely enjoyable, and I have no desire to take it out and put something else in. I've played around with a couple of other cartridges in the meantime - a Denon 103 and an Azden YMP50 - but it's always a relief to come back to the ART9. It just gets out of the way of the music. I know it's an illusion, but that sensation is more or less the aim of my whole system, and with that in mind the ART9 feels right at home.
Speaking of phono stages, I'm using a Doshi Alaap 2.1 that's just now broken in. Works beautifully with the ART9. the Doshi has an expansive, 3D quality to it. The spaciousness of the ART9 mates well with it so the two of them create a natural, believable sound. The Doshi can be very revealing of any faults in the front end but the ART9 gives up nothing under the bright lights. For those looking for more reasonably priced phono stages, I also had good results with an Audion Premier MM phono stage paired with an Auditorium 23 standard transformer. The Audion is a good bargain used and lets you play around with head amps and transformers if that's your cup of tea.
Any caveats? Maybe the ART9 is a bit careful, a bit too conservative, and missing the extra halo of realism that I hear in the Zyx. I'm just working from memory there, so I'll put a big parentheses around that statement until I have time to compare the two. I'm waiting on a Mint LP protractor at the moment, so hopefully I can get everything working at its best before I do any comparisons. till then the Zyx is on vacation in the gadget drawer.
@oregonpapa thanks for the tip on claude williamson - hadn't heard of him before but I'll give a listen. |
@chakster @pani I agree too - comparing the ART9 to higher-end carts would be helpful in the absence of any 'pro' reviews. My guess is that the lack of attention to the cartridge in the US audio press has more to do with the fact that AT hasn't marketed the ART9 cartridge here.
I hope to do a comparison of my own between the ART9 and my Zyx, and I'll post my impressions here. I'm just waiting for a Mint LP to come, so I can be sure that the carts are properly aligned. I'm not a pro at this and I'm not a big fan of "Audio-ese", but I'll do my best. And I'll state up front that i'm slightly (very) biased, because that Zyx cost a crap ton.
Also I think there's been some clear comparisons here with the $2k Dyna XX2 MkII, in which the ART9 comes out ahead. That's my impression too.
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oh yeah - I do have some pics of the ART9 stylus that I took with a USB microscope. I'll try to find a way to put them online. They're not great but might help.
and @oregonpapa thanks for the info!
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I finally got a chance to compare the ART9 to my Zyx UNIverse Premium, so I’m posting the results here as promised. The comparison is a bit silly since the cartridges are separated by an order of magnitude in price. It's clearly an unfair 'fight'. But the lingering question here is whether the ART9 can compete against the upper echelon of MC carts, and if not, just how far up the scale it reaches. For me this exercise helped to impart some clarity. I’m not a pro so please bear with me and apologies in advance if I step on any toes. My system is detailed at the bottom of the post.
In the end the results were about what I expected. The Zyx outperformed the ART9 in pretty much all the categories I could think of. I enjoyed the ART9 profoundly during the first 100 hours of break in, to the point where I felt no desire to put another cartridge in the system. But once I installed the Zyx UNI Pre again the differences became apparent, and I do hear the ART9 differently now. (I think it was Mark Twain who said that “comparison is the death of joy”)
First off, the Zyx is significantly more detailed, or has a lower ‘noise floor’. The ART9 is excellent in this regard, particularly in the upper mid range, but I always heard a certain dullness or compression as I noted in an earlier post. Break in improved this considerably but it never fully disappeared.
On the high end, the Zyx reaches further than the ART9. Rooms are more audible for example. On Keith Jarrett’s Koln Concert LP, the ART9 made the piano sound more close-miked. With the Zyx I heard the piano sitting on a stage in a particular hall, making for a more engaging listen.
On the low end, the ART9 is good - bass drums are felt and heard in a natural sounding way. But the Zyx goes much deeper and still stays taught and controlled. The bass is one of the great things about this Zyx IMHO (and btw I don’t hear Zyx cartridges as ‘bright’, as people commonly say, although i’ve only heard this one, a UNI II, and the 4D mono).
Mid-range is more complicated and I’m still teasing it out. The two carts are more comparable here - especially in vocals. But after switching back and forth I’m hearing the ART9 as a bit cloudy and colored in the lower mids - like there’s extra ‘stuff’ hanging on the notes. I probably wouldn’t have heard this without going back to the Zyx, but now that I’m aware of it I can’t “unhear” it. My overall sense with the ART9 is that it’s a bit over-emphasized in the mid range and (perhaps) under-emphasized at the bottom and top.
On dynamics, again the ART9 is great but the Zyx is better. There’s a sense of pure surprise that I get with the Zyx, usually a few times per LP if it’s an acoustic recording, that I don’t experience nearly as often with the ART9.
Also I heard a difference in the leading edges of notes, or in fast transients. The Zyx is sharp and precise in this regard, where the ART9 has a more rolled-off feeling. It’s like a decent knife versus an Obsidian blade. A reedy saxophone or a bow drawn across a double bass brings the distinction into focus.
Imaging? Again the Zyx excels here, but it’s slightly complicated. The ART9 has this wonderfully delineated quality, giving it a big, open soundstage. It’s the first thing that jumped out at me when I first installed the ART9. But in comparison to the Zyx this quality began to feel a bit exaggerated, as if the musicians were sometimes in different rooms altogether (which I suppose could be true). The Zyx otoh delineated the instruments but maintained an overall ‘organic’ or integrated feel. Also the Zyx has very precise images that extend out to the sides of the soundstage, more so than the ART9.
On tracking I have no strong opinion. Both cartridges were fine in this regard. However I have had some struggles in the past getting this and other Zyx cartridges to play nice with the VPI tonearm, so I might place the ART9 ahead in this category as it was flawless.
What’s the takeaway? To me the ART9 is still a remarkable cartridge that punches well above its weight. In the first 100 hours of use I thought my system had never sounded better (although that’s partly a result of the new Doshi Phono stage). The combined mid-range warmth and detail got me interested in some LPs that I had overlooked before (I’m thinking of a Mozart string quartet LP by the Sequoia Quartet).
In general my sense is that the real strength of the ART9 is in the upper mid range, where it’s remarkably clean and detailed, but that those strengths diminish as you move up and down the spectrum from there. Also, the differences between the ART9 and the Zyx UNI Premium were smaller on studio recordings in contrast to live ones or recordings of acoustic instruments.
However I wouldn’t say the ART9 belongs in the top echelon of cartridges, or pushes the boundaries of MC technology. I haven’t heard enough different cartridges to make that judgement, to be honest. But I don’t think the ART9 defies the laws of gravity. In other words, manufacturers have to make trade offs at lower price points. The ART9’s trade-offs are artfully done but they do exist. If the cartridge pushes an envelope, it's in delivering much higher performance than you would expect for its price.
But just how high? The decisive thing to me now would be a comparison between the ART9 and one of the more moderately-priced insanely expensive cartridges, like the Benz Micro LP-S, Dynavector XVs, some Lyras (Titan?), Miyajima Kansui, etc. etc. I would love to see someone here do that!
System:
The ART9 was installed on a VPI Aries 1 turntable, modded so that all but the plinth is replaced. It has a Teres Verus II ‘rim drive’ motor, aluminum Classic platter, 3D tonearm, Edensound brass footers (with rubber shock mounts removed). The TT is sitting on a vibraplane.
Phono stage is a Doshi Alaap 2.1 with stock tubes, connected to a Horn Shoppe The Truth optical volume control. Amp is an Art Audio Jota HC SET amplifier, with Devore Silverback Reference speakers. Cables are mostly Auditorium 23, with one run of Kimber double stranded silver ICs. DIY isolation rack and various gewgaws for vibration control.
During break in I had the ART9 mounted on a 3D arm wand with the current “reference” tonearm wire. After 100 hours were completed I moved the ART9 to a second arm wand (a JMW 10.5i with Nordost Valhalla wiring) and put the Zyx UNI Pre on the 3D arm (its normal home). I switched back and forth between those two arms to compare the two carts. Cartridges were both aligned using a Mint LP protractor.
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Thanks for the kind words Frank. I did try the ART9 on a few mono records but I wasn't too crazy about it. I found the sound too warm and thick in the mid-range, much more so than on stereo LPs. Not sure why that would be the case.
On the second question... Yes I'd probably be happy with the ART9. However I've been kind of restless with tweaking and improving the system, so it's hard to predict whether or not I'd have the bug to try something else. I will say that the Zyx and the AT were remarkably close at times. On some studio recordings where there's not a lot of 'room effect' and not too much happening in the bass, the differences may be pretty subtle. I found this to be the case on the Rounder LP of the Boyoyo Boys (classic South African Mbaqanga music), when I listened to each side on a different cart. |
@lewm the Doshi doesn’t have a mono switch, nor does the Truth volume control. I’m not sure why that would warm up the mid range though. ? (I mean not having the preamp switched to mono).
@pani I knew this wasn’t really a "shoot-out" because the Zyx would almost certainly come out on top, but I wanted to know exactly How. And the comparison taught me something - I hadn’t really perceived that arc where the ART9 is a bit stronger in the mids but tapers off above and below that. So I just thought I’d put it out there in the interests of building a base of information on this cartridge.
What you said about the ART9 disappearing into the system jibes with my own experience. And the Doshi combined with the Truth VC is pretty transparent and unkind to lesser carts.... |
+1 on tablejockey's comments. Give it the best you've got, and the ART9 won't disappoint (as long as it's in good shape). SUT vs SS gain stage seems to come down to personal preference a lot, or implementation in a particular product, so you'll need to experiment. I used a Clearaudio Nano for a while, and I agree it's a good unit for the price point. However I've found things get a lot better as you move up the spectrum. Which leads to another point...
Lately I've been switching around between a few different cartridges - the ART9, Dyna XX2, 'modded' 103r, and Zyx Universe. Each one has its own character but I'd venture to say that the differences between them are not as great (even with the mighty Zyx) as the improvement I experienced when moving up to a high end phono stage. I was surprised by the degree of difference to be honest, but that's what I've experienced. So now that you've got the TT and cartridge squared away, you might think about pushing the envelope with the first gain stage. enjoy it. |
I'm not sure there's any particular phono stage that would pair specifically with the ART9. The right one is the best one that you can afford with your budget. The better the phono stage, the more ART9 you'll hear, and the best ones (in my limited experience) will not reveal any hidden flaws. So find the best phono stage you can and be confident that ART9 will be equal to the task. I'd also add that spending money on a good phono stage is NOT a waste - it's a critical step in the chain, so worth the investment. |
Wow - so what cart would you be looking at to replace the ART9? I didn't realize it but the ART9 output is a little highish at .5mv |
Pani - I seem to remember that you were using an EMIA MC step up before. Do you have a feel for how the EMIA and the Audio Note trannies compare? I guess the S8 is a lot higher up the chain in price. |
I think you make a fair point @tobes. I also felt a disconnect between some of the high flying rhetoric in this thread and the way it ended with a bit of a whimper. That discomfort is why I posted a long and perhaps unwelcome comparison of the ART9 to the Zyx Universe Premium here. If the ART9 was being touted as a true ‘giant killer’ (“sky’s the limit” is one of the phrases I seem to remember from this thread), then I wanted to know what the cartridge would really sound like against a recognized “giant.”
I guess my point is, what’s at stake in judging a cartridge is a basic objective claim: how well does it work as a transducer? I understand that we all judge that with our subjective ears, and that no cartridge is or can be perfect. I like to try different cartridges as much as anyone because I always learn from the process. But still, it seems to me that we’re talking about a level of excellence and not just a “flavor of the month”. and in that regard there are limits to the ART9 no matter how great it is within its particular price point.
I say this as someone who really enjoys the ART9 and who used it as “daily driver” for a good year. I also find myself getting a bit… bored of it. why? My guess is that while its fantastic in the essential mid-range, it also loses focus, punch and realism at the top and bottom of the spectrum. It takes a while to hear that, or at least it did for me. Fantastic cartridge, challenger to carts retailing for twice its price, but not necessarily indicative of the current state of the art.
and apologies but I haven’t read the comparison referenced above. I’ll take a look when my toddler gives me a chance… :)
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Well these comments inspired me to saddle up the ol' ART9 again after making some changes to my ICs and adding a Stillpoints LP Isolator to the TT. The LPI in particular helped open up the top end and it also tightened up the bass a bit and sharpened dynamics. A welcome change all around. But most interestingly, it improved the sound in just the places I was complaining about with the ART9: bass resolution, higher end detail and overall balance. So I hereby amend my above remarks. impressive cartridge, given my relatively limited experience. |
The thing that jumps out to me most about this cartridge is its ability separate out the various instruments. I wonder how it does that. |
