Allnic Audio Amber Moving Coil Phono Cartridge

Description

Allnic Audio’s NEW Amber moving coil cartridge is finally a reality. The culmination of 13 years of research, trials and experimentation resulted in the creation of what will be recognized as a true State of the Art musical transducer.

Stymied by the endless search for a supple and durable enough rubber to use in Allnic’s MCs unusual 2 magnet motor, we experimented with suspension rubbers from every continent. Last October, Allnic Audio CEO and designer, KS Park, gleefully announced discovery of a perfect suspension rubber manufactured within 100 miles of his Korean facility.

The testing began! This new found rubber was extensively tested with oven heating and drying at 130 degrees for hours on end. These oven tests proved the rubber’s ability to retain moisture, providing the suppleness and its integral structure the suspension requires. The biggest drawback with MC cartridge aging is the drying out effect. The older suspensions lose suppleness from moisture loss and harden, resulting in a bright, hard, edgy sound. In dryer climes, this effect is more pronounced. Because of this, the tracking ability of the stylus is impacted by the rubber’s hardening, boosting high frequencies and exaggerating sibilance.

During 6 months of sonic tests in Korea, Canada, Belgium and Italy, Amber, with the new rubber and Fritz Gyger supplied Boron cantilever, listeners reported this cart has very few peers at twice our announced price. Personally, I have nothing as good in my collection of cartridges, and this observation was reported by some others in these evaluations. In trials, I could not wait to get back to Amber. Some carts may have an edge in certain qualities, but none provide the thrills and the total satisfaction with the hobby that Amber imparts long after engaging listening sessions. This cartridge sings, mama!

Even with Amber’s higher compliance, better results were gleaned from bigger mass tone arms such as the 4 Point Kuzma, Ikeda 407, FR 66 and 64. The word is, 14 gram and heavier tone arm mass designs will produce best matching.

What Amber provides, in spades, is the ability to do everything well, producing huge, bold effortless dynamics, deep bass, reach out and touch transparency, with fantastic separation and a mile deep sound stage. Amber tracks very well and is on par for record surface noise. Typically, better records offer quieter playback. Ironically, during trials, all listeners reported older vinyl, even with warts and scratches, tracked quieter than most current day productions.

Is it really good? Amber’s feedback to date has been unbelievable, especially given that testers have been comparing to much more expensive and recognizable cartridges.

No disappointments! Might very well be your system improvement of the year. And as with every Allnic Audio component to hit these shores, expect a ground swell of praise and accolades!

First, every LP record master is engraved using an LP cutting lathe’s cutter head. The Amber and Rose moving coil (MC) cartridges are designed to reproduce music via a mechanism that emulates the LP cutting lathe’s cutter head, of course, however, with a diamond stylus that tracks the record grooves’ faces, rather than with a diamond chisel for cutting the grooves into the vinyl.

Second, the Amber and Rose have two separate hollow polycarbonate bobbins, as opposed to one bobbin designed as an iron square or cross-block.

Third, iron is about nine times heavier than polycarbonate, so a conventional iron bobbin reacts with far less agility to the musical grooves of a vinyl record than one made of hollow polycarbonate.

Fourth, as a cantilever moves along the vinyl’s grooves, it needs a pivot. Conventional MC cartridges’ coils are located near the pivot because of their heavy moving mass. Because of its lighter moving mass, relative to conventional MC cartridges, the Allnic Amber and Rose’s coils are nearer to the diamond stylus. The result for the Amber and Rose is increased coil vibration capability and, therefore, more detailed audio reproduction.

The Amber and Rose also feature:

• A new rubber damper developed by Allnic
• New CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum) dual coils
• Fritz Gyger S stylus
• Amber: Solid Boron cantilever (Rose: Solid Aluminum)
• Zinc mounting plate
• Weight of 11 grams

Experience indicates that the Amber and Rose will continually improve over a minimum of forty (40) hours of playing time, reaching a level of performance well beyond their initial ones and, we believe, well beyond that of most MC phono cartridges.

• Magnet: Neodymium 50. No yoke in moving coil, but in magnet assembly: pure iron.
• Tracking ability 78um at 300Hz, about 9um/mN compliance.
• Tests great on +15dB 300Hz on HiFi News test LP.
• Medium and high mass tone arms recommended; low mass not advised.

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