Technics SL1210GAE + Accuphase E-480 (AD-50) + ??? (cartridge)

Hana Umami Red is a good option for your arm and preferences.

Industry disclosure: I'm a Hana dealer.

+1 for the Hana! Excellent SQ and reasonably priced! No need to spend $4K!

Try ART1000, this is very interesting new design inspired by Victor Direct Couple models. 

@tre9901,

Another vote for Hana Umami Red. Great synergy and gorgeous sound with my Accuphase E-650 / AD-50. My tonearm is SME V.

I have an SL1200GAE and have tried an AT ART9 and Soundsmith Paua MKII. Both sound great.

Dear @tre9901 : Hanna is very good but the Audio Technica ART-9XA is a huge challenge not only to that Hanna but for any top cartridge.:

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/cartridges/line-series/art-series/at-art9xa

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

I have an Ortofon Cadenza bronze on my SL-1210GAE and it sounds great.

@jdal Thank you for the suggestion!  Which headshell are you using?  Did you have to shim for VTA?  Any other setup issues?

@rauliruegas I see there are now two different ART-9 carts.  Is there a reason the XA is best for this setup?

@chakster I have heard of the ART1000, why do you like this cartridge?  Have you used it with technics G/GAE?

@lalitk Curious as to what settings you're using with the AD-50 and Umami Red.  Were there other carts you compared?

ART-1000 is unique design, not a conventional MC, I already mentionad why, this design was invented by Victor in Japan in the 70’s (called Direct Couple type). AT improved and upgraded this design. Read about it, watch Fremer’s video tour at Audio-Technica in Japan. 
I prefer Technics EPA-100 mk2 tonearm over new arm you have on G or GAE series, but it doesn’t matter, with stock arm you can use hundreds of cartridges, no matter what other people are using. Any mid compliance cart is a perfect match! 
I tried over 60 cartridges on various Technics tonearms and turntables. 
No one can tell you what cartridge to use, because you can use so many and this arm is very easy to adjust. Stock headshell is fine, if you want to try different shells you can buy 15 more headshells of different mass to experiment with, no one can tell you what you need as the weight of the shell can change tonearm mass and you have to calculate it according to cartridge weight and cartridge compliance. 

@tre9901 

I am using 300ohms settings with Hana Red in AD-50. I have tried 100ohms as well but to my ears 300ohms loading sounded the best. Hana suggested loading is >60ohms. 
The other cart I’ve tried is Hana M (MC) which prompted me to step up to Red. 

Dear @tre9901  :  The ART 9XA is descendent from the heavy acclaimed ART 7 that has a very important design characteristic that no others AT cartridges have and is:  non-magnetic core.

""  Compared with the magnetic core used in most MC cartridges, non-magnetic core cartridges are free from magnetic distortion, allowing for natural timbre and a precise sound field.  "" and it makes a difference for the better.

The other critical important characteristic is that's a lower output design that the other AT models. The XA comes with a 0.2mV output level that means it has less wire at its coils, so the cartridge signal suffers less degradation than cartridges with 0.3 or 0.4mVs.Btw, it will mates very well with your tonearm that's really good one but even its high quality of that Technics gear you own you can improve it using these headshell wires that are an important and crucial link for the cartridge signal ( again ) suffers the lowest degradation down there. At the end what we audiophiles should be is try to preserves the cartridge signal integrity because is there where comes all the sound that we will listen at our room/system seat position. Those headshell wires is a must to change. Here an excellent alternative about:

https://www.zavfino1877.com/cryogoldheads


Obviously that you can buy additional headshells with better performance than the stock one. You can but wood material build headshell or magnesium or blended magnesium and the like. A different headshell makes a difference too for the better or bad depends on our choices about.

Finally could be a good idea ( latter on. ) to re-wire the tonearm internal wires for something a little better and here too you will hear a high differences for the better. With those changes your Technics gear will goes to another levels and you could say it belongs to the big league. Here the tonearm re-wire:

https://www.zavfino1877.com/4litz3ag-pure-silver-tonearm-re-wire-kit


Btw, the VTA mechanism in your tonearm is by a wide margin the best VTA mechanis ever builded, period. It comes from the vintage Technics EPA 500 and today not yet outperfomed, I love it.


Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

I do not have direct experience with the Accuphase AD-50 phono, so my comments come from general experience:
 I would hesitate to jump into a 0.2mV cart unless user experience strongly suggests the phono is up to it. That's quite a low output and generally requires excellence from the phono...For a lomc it is possible that splitting the budget between cart and SUT and then using the MM input *may* yield better results. I am not a 'SUT all the time' person btw...

Oh and the Sculpture A carts and SUT are both worth a look in addition to the other good suggestions above.

Caveat: I am in the trade and have a relationship with Sculpture A.

I’m using the stock headshell. Setting up the cartridge wasn’t too bad using the supplied tool. I’m still playing around with the arm height which is easy to do with the 1210. 

Interested to see how this works out as I am in a similar situation.  

Dear @solipsa : The AD-50 is not an stand alone unit it’s an Accuphase phono stgae input board and comes with 66 db of gain that’s more than enough for the ART 9XA.
As a fact Accuphase spec about says a sensitivity of 0.126mV .

It works with the OP E-480 and in this picture at the left side of the unit you can see two blanks spaces where the AD-50 goes:

http://www.accuphase.com/model/photo/e-480_e_back.jpg

Accuphase from the vintage times always been and be top class electronic designs and very high quality excecution of those designs to compete with top SS great manufacturer names.

R.

@rauliruegas thanks for the detail! I am aware of Accuphase as an excellent manufacturer. While 66db is enough, within the context of the preamp requirements, my comment was simply that a cart of 0.2mV output will put any phononstage to the test and only the best will shine. Thats all. This may be one of the best...as I said I have not had experience with it directly.
 

OP, what did you end up going with?

I have an E-480 and am wondering how the AD-50 compares with external phono preamps. I intend to go with the Technics 1200G, and possibly the ART9XI.

I couldn't really hear a large enough difference between the DAC-60 card and my Yggdrasil, so I'm assuming their AD-50 card also punches a ways above its price point...

I like the Ortofon 2M Black on my 1210GAEs.