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

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.

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.

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.