Curious Why Benz Micro Slid Into Obscurity

I have enjoyed a Ruby 3, and now have a line on a half-price 30-hour LP-s. It will cost me, all the same, about ten times the price of a re-tip on the Ruby 3. How shall I proceed?

I bought a BM Glider SL from KRON a few years back - got COVID and completely forgot about the cartridge. I paid roughly $600 at the time and thinking there might be a possibility of counterfeiting I contacted the factory via email and was informed that no, there are no counterfeit BM cartridges.

What a surprise when I was asking about low output MC cartridges about a year ago (considering Hana, Ortofon, a couple others I don’t recall) and someone mentioned the BM line… a little light went off and I dug in my box of stuff and VOILA!

Yeah, I had covid for over a month, some brain fog a lot longer.

I am VERY happy with this cartridge’s performance, have clocked easily 300+ hours on it this past 8 months alone - I’d been using an Ortofon 2M Black prior to this and it’s like night and day for sound reproduction. I borrow my son’s ears from time to time for equipment change evaluations (he’s a multi-instrument musician and no tinnitus like his old man).

Something that made a big change for me recently was changing from an electric phono stage (Musical Surroundings Nova III) to a Quadratic Audio MC-1 SUT, another night-day performance changer. 

Still loving the BM Glider sound reproduction but… I have an Ortofon Cadenza Black sitting here I just paid off which I’ve “auditioned” and like VERY much but, I’m thinking I’ll just keep playing the BM for now until I wear out the stylus in another thousand hours or so then send it out for rebuild.

If I replace the cartridge NOW, I’ll have to start listening to all my records all over again… not an entirely BAD thought, and I AM retired so…

For the price point, I can’t recommend Benz Micro highly enough.

Big Benz fan, especially the extremely low output and low DCR Ebony TR, which is a perfect match for the 40x SUT in my Allnic phono. Recently bought my third one. The new distributor offered an extreme discount because, apparently, no one else wants this model!

Looks like I have an LP-S on the way.

@normb omg, the Glider SL is so damn good for the money, isn’t it? Makes you wonder how you get all that for under $1K. And yes, it absolutely clobbers the 2M Black.

@wrm57 the Ebony TR is such an interesting model, and I’m sorry I never tried it yet. I have a regular Ebony L, which is quite excellent in its slot. Yep, 40x SUT is pretty much required for TR. I was also curious though, what about a 5x - 10x SUT (like a Sky 10) combined with a moderate voltage gain active MC stage (even Benz's own PP-1 @ 62dB). The math works out well. That might also be an excellent combination. 

One of the big things to realize about Benz cartridges is the line of demarcation around coil former (armature) used. From Ebony and down you have the iron cross. These models are a super match with SUT’s, but also work very well with all active gain stages (voltage or current injection). For Ruby, Gullwing, and LP/S models you have a ruby plate. Magnetically, this is not nearly as efficient. These models do NOT work well with a SUT or current injection - use active voltage gain ONLY. I tried so many ways with the LPS and various SUT’s. Unfortunately, my affinity for a good SUT (in place of an active MC gain stage) is SO high, I actually end up preferring the lower Benz models.