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Price varies; Stylus assembly: $282

It will no doubt seem curious to award a Golden Ear to a product discontinued a quarter century ago. But used samples of this classic moving magnet are easily acquired at reasonable prices on the second-hand market; now, thanks to the Japanese firm Jico, you can have in effect a brand-new pickup, owing to Jico’s SAS/B replacement stylus. All things considered, I know of no other phono pickup, mc or mm, that offers quite the combination of features and beautiful sound in the way that tonal neutrality typically guarantees, yet that is also transparent, engaging, and involving and that still tracks better than any other in my experience. There’s also the cachet of having an important piece of audio history that is far from irrelevant or left at the post in today’s world. I’m glad I have one, and I wouldn’t trade or get rid of it for the world. (334)

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$2500

The Hana Umami Blue has a glossy blue finish that is applied with a special Melamine Thermosetting Process, developed by Dupont, that bonds the color to the Umami Blue’s A7075 aluminum Auricle body, followed by an enameling process to add brilliance to the look of the cartridge. The Blue uses a white POM material with an embedded Hana Umami logo for its front inlay, which is said to provide specific damping properties. A solid Boron cantilever, nude microline stylus, and the cryogenic treatment (front and rear yokes, pole piece, and 24-karat gold-plated terminals), Alnico-magnet-based moving-coil generator with pure copper hand-wound on the Permalloy armature make up the core of this wonderful-sounding cartridge.

All-around excellent, some of its standout virtues include its ability to swing dynamically from micro to macro while staying linear as it traverses these levels. The Blue has a more illuminated character than other Hana cartridges, which moves it closer to neutral without crossing that line into analytical. The Blue traces and tracks the grooves surefootedly on complex passages, conveying a high level of transparency, harmonic complexity, speedy note-transitions, and richness. The Umami is a flash of “Blue” lightning at its price point. (Forthcoming)

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$22,500

Gadzooks! Hailing from Tokyo, this upgraded version of the original optical Grand Master cartridge, the brainchild of Tetsuakio Aoyagi, the president of DS Audio, is not merely an upgrade. It truly merits that overused term “game-changer” because it changes the analog game in profound ways. It is richer, faster, and more palpable than its predecessor, offering a lifelike presentation of fine recordings and lifting merely mundane ones to the level of pleasurable listening. The level of micro-detail that it excavates from the grooves is uncanny, rendering the most minute bowing on a cello fully audible. The construction of the cartridge’s stylus and cantilever, which transmit the groove modulations to an optical generator, is similar to that of the nifty Swiss X-quisite cartridge but goes one level further. The Extreme, you could even say, was made by extremists. It sports a 0.22mm one-piece diamond cantilever that employs no adhesive, a process that is supposed to allow it to detect the vibration of the needle tip more accurately. Listening to it will surely turn almost any analog lover into an adherent of no adhesion, for the results are immediately audible. Bass reproduction is stygian and the treble effortless. Add in a far more stable soundstage in which the position of various instruments can easily and rapidly be identified, and you have one of the, if not the, best cartridges extant. (Forthcoming)

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$8995

Founded in 2004 by Yoshio Matsudaira, a onetime colleague of Koetsu founder Yoshiaki Sugano, My Sonic Lab designs are distinguished by Matsudaira’s unique SH-μX magnetic core, a special material with higher permeability and flux density than the typical iron core material used in many mc cartridges. It also allows My Sonic Lab to use fewer coil windings than other mc’s, “minimizing distortions and maximizing signal output. The high-efficiency approach translates into wide dynamic range, fast transient response, low distortion, and a high signal-to-noise ratio.” Second down in the line from the top Signature Platinum model, which I haven’t heard, I settled on the Gold as my reference for its unusually “alive” presentation, capable of sounding both vibrant and delicate, albeit with no lack of tonal richness or textural detail. It also throws an impressively wide and deep soundstage that is laser-focused, with naturally wide as well as nuanced dynamics that really pop. It also tracks flawlessly. Need I add that the description of any single component must be considered in the context of the system it is reviewed in? In some, the Signature Gold’s strengths may be less attractive than the warmer sound of, say, a Koetsu. But in my system, this My Sonic design hits all the right notes. Pun absolutely intended. (317)

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Denon DL-103, DL-103R, and DLA220GS Phono Cartridges

$349, $499, $599

These are three different versions of the same pickup. The DL-103 enjoys a longer life without modification than any other phono cartridge in the history of audio, while also being one of the most beloved audio products ever made. The base model DL-103 is exactly the same pickup, manufactured exactly the same way (by hand) since its introduction in 1962. Five paramount virtues account for its staying power: a natural, supremely musical tonal profile; the ability to make recordings come dynamically, vibrantly, intoxicatingly alive; body, dimensionality, and solidity resulting in outstanding resolution of the sometimes-conflicting demands of soundstaging and imaging; an impression of connectedness resulting in a gripping sense of flow and drive; and a sample-to sample-consistency and reliability that should be the envy of the industry. These pickups are now among my top references. Only snobs will fret over the bargain pricing, while the rest of us are rewarded with the peerless satisfaction provided discriminating music lovers by this magnificent design for over six decades now.

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Excel Sound Corporation Hana SL Cartridge

$750

Around five years ago, I said that the Hana SL establishes a baseline of performance that any cartridge demanding a higher price should exceed, without any steps backwards in other areas. This seems like it should be a simple matter, but the Hana SL makes it a tall order for some higher-priced cartridges, especially the part about not stepping backwards. At that time, I also reported that the Hana SL had an even-handed response across the frequency spectrum, traces the grooves very well (from low-to-high frequencies), and has a touch of color that moves it ever so slightly to the warm side of neutral. Today, the Hana SL continues to impress in system configurations that include higher-cost analog front ends. At its price point, it is still a standout. This cartridge will allow the owner to enjoy his vinyl playback system while providing an anchor for future upgrades of tonearms, turntables, and phonostages. For a cartridge at any price, the Hana SL holds its own against the competition, and then some. Over the years, it has been an easy recommendation, offering low distortion, high coherence, excellent soundstage depth and width, and an uncanny sense of togetherness. It’s still a keeper.

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DS Audio DS 003 Optical Phono Cartridge

$2500 ($6000 with matching equalizer)

After setting new standards of fidelity in the ultra-high end with his POY-winning $15,000 Grand Master optical cartridge (and $45k, two-box Grand Master equalizer), DS Audio’s ingenious Tetsuaki “Aki” Aoyagi has turned his attention to the rest of us.  The $2500 DS 003 ($6k with its matching DS 003 equalizer) is a “trickle-down” masterpiece. Using many of the technical innovations first found in the Grand Master (such as a dual-mono optical generator with independent LEDs and photo detectors for each channel and a beryllium “shading plate,” which reduces moving mass to 1/10th that of a typical moving-coil cartridge), the “third-generation” 003 sounds almost exactly like a slightly less finely detailed, slightly less spacious Grand Master. Every bit as standard-settingly quiet, explosively dynamic, and robustly rich in color as its big brother, the DS 003 makes opting (or optical’ing) for a new-tech oc a lot easier (and a lot less of a trade-off) than it once was. With channel separation measurably approaching 33dB in the midrange and tracking that is as smooth and glitch-free as that of the far pricier Grand Master, the DS 003 does not compromise soundstaging and trackability in the ways that earlier-gen, “affordable” DS Audios did. If you’ve longed to sample a top-line oc but haven’t had the moolah to do so, now’s your chance. The DS 003 opens the door—and opens it wide—to a new world of noise-free, tape-like playback, with bass response and treble sweetness and bloom that you could previously only get with reel-to-reel. Another sure-fire nominee for a 2022 TAS Product of the Year Award.

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