Excel Sound/LP Gear The Vessel

MOVING MAGNET CARTRIDGE SYSTEM

- TOM FINE

When it comes to phonography, I’m not terribly picky, but I do have preferences. I maintain my records well because I prefer to play clean records, with minimal pops, clicks, and crackle to distract me. I like a phono cartridge that tracks average platters perfectly and difficult sides at least very well. I prefer cartridge-turntable systems that keep up with the pace of the music, bring forth its beat, and don't muff quick dynamics. I like a phono preamp that runs quiet and interfaces with my cartridges in a hum-free way. Most of all, I like to keep fuss and fiddling from between me and musical enjoyment.

As such, I've generally preferred what I call workingman’s phono rigs: moving magnet cartridges; Technics SL-1200-series turntables that are easy to set up and allow quick swapping of cartridge/headshell combos; and solid state phono preamplifiers with highly accurate RIAA deemphasis and low noisefloors. In fact, I own only two moving coil cartridges: a Denon DL-110 I've had for years and a recently acquired Hana SL MK II. Though I’m quite fond of those two MCs, most of my vinyl playing is with moving magnet (MM) cartridges.

One of the best features of MM cartridges is that at least with many of them you can remove and replace the stylus assembly to replace a worn-out stylus or damaged cantilever or to try a different stylus profile—indeed it is easy to do. Common nowadays are MM cartridge lines where you can start out with a bonded elliptical stylus for close to a hundred bucks and upgrade all the way through a nude Shibata stylus assembly that rings up closer to a grand.1 Examples of such moving magnet cartridge systems are Audio-Technica’s VMx and VM95 lines, Ortofon's Concorde Music and 2M series,2 and the subject of this review, The Vessel, made by Excel Sound in Japan and sold exclusively by Las Vegas-based LP Gear.3