Audio Technica ART20 cartridge.

In a post(above) member 'daytona' quoted from the review I posted. The reviewer expands on the point I made a few pages back. Buyers in the price range that the ART20 occupies are not considering the 'Audio Technica' brand on their buying radar. That quote posted in daytona's post is basically saying the same thing.

I read between the lines of the reviewer stating that is " a serious mistake" to infer that the reviewer feels that it is one of, if not the best at the price range.

 

kirt, if you were decrying the dearth of corroborating testimony about the ART20, this should cheer you up no end:

Audio Technica ART20 excels

 

As a matter of fact, I'd say that- the word is out- as they say:

Banco de pruebas a la cápsula AUDIO-TECHNICA AT-ART20

Kinda makes me proud to have got the word out myself...

 

Yeah, after heaing the 20 I was seriously considering moving up the scale to the ART1000. There's an open-box available at $3500. But that stylus with the open coils looks like a stylus-cleaning disaster. And after our experience and the newly-issued comments I think doubling the 20 as you have done would be the wiser choice. Davey turned me onto moving coil in the TT15S1 thread and I jumped into that not-so-deep end. No regrets. And it's starting to look like the ART20 is not just at the starting edge of high-end cartridges. Congrats to Audio Technica! And thank you for starting this thread quickly after discovering the ART20.

 

With regard to that $3500 ART1000, you would have had to beat me to it! What stopped me from buying it was the fact that, essentially, this cartridge is manufactured(ie those minute precisely placed coils) by one woman at Audio Technica. No retipper can step in to take up the task. Therefore when it comes to stylus replacement time, everytime over however long one wants to keep using that top flight high performance expensive cartridge, it has to go back to Audio Technica for her attention. I promise you, that will not be a cheap exercise. I'd actually guarantee you that the stylus replacement cost on an ART1000 would exceed that $3500 initial purchase price. If you'd intend to regularly use the ART1000 over 10 years or more(in order to get value for the initial purchase price) those regular stylus replacement trips the cartridge would have to make to Japan would substantially add up in massive financial outlay. Also, because only one individual in the entire corporation can make the essential element of the cartridge, one had better pray that she stays healthy or that her eyesight and fine motor skils do not deteriorate in any way...

I decided that as juicy as that $3500 price for the open box 1000 looked, there was and remains a 'hook' to the purchase of a 1000 which might not bother the millionaires but would snag those of lesser means who might not have thought the situation through.

 

The reviews of the ART20, in true reflection of its remarkable capability, are starting to look like a 'buzz' is generating. I have never been a man of means but I have always been a beer budget with champagne aspirations type. Because of that for many years I would make it my mission to go and personally visit hi fi dealerships and listen to the latest 'buzz' products. I also urge everyone to do the same. It is the best education for one's Ear. Yes read the reviews but also seek out an audition. I guarantee you will be disappointed by the majority of rave review items. They just are not that good. That's why I said I am a fussy listener. I know the difference between reputation and realisation for good sound. The ART20 genuinely surprised me with just how good it sounded. I doubt that I still have the full measure of how good it can sound. It is one of the most exceptional components I have heard in 45 plus years of seeking great sound. Thus despite the cartridge surprising me, I am not surprised by the rave reviews.

I keep coming back to the point however that honest components and by that I mean those rare components which actually give us that fabled open window to the recording also do not hold back on giving an open window to how the rest of the system performs. I can see that you have wondered whether I have been talking about your system. You are a headphone listener. Thus we don't have to contend with a bad room. You have superb headphones. Superb headphones. You have a high end amp. You have a good turntable/arm. That is a reasonable match for the ART20. I would suggest that should you ever consider upgrading the cartridge beyond the ART20 to first buy a better turntable and try the ART 20 with the rest of your system using that better turntable. You might not desire to upgrade past the ART20 after hearing it on a better turntable. Please do not take offense. Experience has shown me that the higher the actual practical capability of the cartridge, the more that the turntable will be the limiting factor. Not just in your situation. In every situation. This cartridge is so capable that the owners of the best possible turntables will be the ones who hear it to its fullest capability. The fact that it isn't stratospherically priced means that the rest of us can get a glimpse of what the big leagues get to play with. Its capability reaches far beyond the price AT has put on it. I cannot wait to see how Mike Fremer receives it.

 

I’ve given a lot of thought to the turntable upgrade. I have mostly focused on the tonearm which, since it’s a Clearaudio Marantz, could easily be done with the Clearaudio Tracer($3300USD). But that comes at another price and that is that the TT15S1 Satisfy Kardan tonearm has the angle fixed to Baerwald. Not so the Tracer which means that alignment is going to be difficult with the ART20 as you have already experienced. And as you have already stated we are getting into the upper limits and with that even the smallest details can have large impacts. So I am very tempted to stick with what I have and accept what I consider to be an underpriced high quality machine.

And it all begs the question to which cartridge would we consider to be improvement enough to switch away from the 20?

 

You would probably need to spend $10,000 to upgrade from the 20 which is why a turntable upgrade at that point would make more sense.

 

Previously on page 4 of this thread I posted a link to a translation of a Stereo Sound review from Japan. The translation was terrible. Here is Stereo Sound's own translation of the review:

オーディオテクニカの「AT-ART20」は、チタニウムハウジングが目を惹く究極的な鉄芯MCカートリッジ。色彩の鮮やかな美音に魅了される逸品 - Stereo Sound ONLINE

 

I have a very tunable isolation support. The tuning of the support has a very large influence on my suspensionless turntable. I have been using the incredible resolution of the ART to experiment further with the fine tuning of my isolation support. The corollary of this is even more resolution from the ART20.

I played one side of 5 different records. Tori Amos Under The Pink, the ORG 45rpm pressing of Jaco Pastorius self titled album, Brian Eno Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy, Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party and finally Cat Stevens Teaser And The Firecat. Aside from the musical differences of the 5, I was given the most contrasting understanding of the different recording quality of the 5 records that I have ever experienced by far. There was so much variation of sonic flavour. I'm very much not talking about music here but the character of the recordings. To be clear, I was hearing them all at the best I had ever heard them without any doubt. They always with other cartridges sounded like different recordings, again not discussing the musical content, but now the contrast between the recording balances, compression, quality of microphones, recording techniques etc was laid bare in a manner that had never been more obvious. Part of the credit does go to my further experiments with my isolation support. I know that because the ART 20(and by extension the final result) is sounding better as I tweek the support. It is well known in high end discussions that better systems move away from having a sound of their own and tend as the system develops to becoming more insighful about the nature of the recording as well as the music. I heard that in spades tonight. This makes me more enthusiastic to tinker a little further because the ART20's evenhandedness is such a great assistance for assessing the changes. This is the hallmark of a great cartridge.

 

Using the ART20 as a tool. No, I don't think I would ever have thought of that but I guess that's a further attestation as to its quality. I've done a little research into upgrading my turntable with a better tonearm. That's not easy and I have again decided that if my present tonearm is inhibiting the ART20's performance to just let it be. The performance of the cartridge is so startling that it still knocks me out. And as Theofile has already noted, some LP's are poorly manufactured and the ART20 just can't overcome that. But they sound no worse and the benefit to the rest is what we're talking about, as the ssaying goes.

 

Don't fret too much. Enjoy the 20. Your current tt/arm is good enough. Play lots of LPs and chill. There is plenty of time to consider upgrades, but for now just enjoy your LPs.

 

I can't remember if this has been addressed, but once you've put 300 or 500 or 1000 hours on the cartridge, depending on which Audio Technica you believe, you may want to have it retipped for a few hundred quid instead of getting a 25% discount from AT on another ART20. I contacted my local highly-respected retipper about this and it seems that retipping will involve the permanent removal of the titanium reinforcement at the cantilever-diamond junction. If that component is partly responsible for the cartridge's performance, then this cartridge is a short-lived luxury for the very well-heeled.

This makes more attractive to me cartridges which can be returned to original spec by firms like Goldring.

If Audio Technica offered a retipping service at, say, £500, I would consider buying two ART20s.

 

Unlike The ART1000, the option of using a third party retipper is completely viable. I will probably utilise that option. More than likely it will cost me far less than the 500 pounds you quoted.

 

I did one more adjust to my isolation support. Now I am hearing the ART20 like I have never heard it. I just played about 10 different records of all different styles of music. All of them were records I had previously played using the 20. The playback was a revelation. Even a standard like Led Zepplin 3 was like hearing it for the first time(I used the Classic Records remaster pressing). The evenhandedness of this cartridge(and this system) allowed me to enjoy and marvel at heavy rock alongside pristine recorded classical.

I keep thinking that aside from the isolation support I have few 'audiophile' tweeks. No boutique power cords, no fancy speaker stands, no power conditioners. I am not putting dirt on those things. I have always believed that the system basically succeeds or fails on the main components. If they don't deliver the goods, farting around with the accessories is gilding the lilly. I have always thought of the system as a chain with the Source mainly responsible for the foundation of the resulting capability or lack thereof.

This is a strong capable chain which delivers on expectations when the Source is optimised. Most people would be ecstatic about the sound when it isn't optimised. Especially with the ART20 in the chain. I know how good this turntable/arm and phono stage can sound. They sound many times better when the turntable is optimally isolated. The goodness of the chain flows from the Source. I took the time this morning to take a better stab at resetting my isolation support. The GT 2000 is a sublime turntable which gets much better with suitable isolation. What I achieved today is definitely my best effort at optimising the support for the GT 2000. The benefits were there to be heard. Because the rest of the system is extremely capable, the payoff for the time invested on the isolation support was spectacular.

Most of the records I played today I know very well, or at least I thought I did. The balance of the frequency spectrum from the bass all the way through to the uppermost treble all sound like they have had a spring clean. It is an uncharacteristically unhumid day for a Queensland Summer. This allowed me to close the house up and turn the sound up. I played records back to back for 4 and a half hours. I only stopped then out of consideration for my neighbours. I am deeply satisfied with the unprecedentedly high quality of replay I achieved with some of my favourite music. I might fiddle a little with VTA and tracking weight, just to see what that does now that the system is on song. All easily revertable should they not improve things any. I cannot convey how pleased I am.

 

Looks like you get approx 1/3 back for your old ART 20 when replacing stylus? is this the case , thank you.

 

To start with I have seen Audio Technica expect 2000 hours out of the needle. I had 800 hours on my ART9XA before I got the ART20 and it still sounded fine to me. I clean the stylus every time I change sides. Who says the Titanium has to be removed? Is it not possible to replace only the diamond? If I can get 2000 hours out of the diamond I will probably have Audio Technica do it. Soundsmith is the only other retipper I have heard of but this is the bottom of my expertise.

 

I've never seen an official 2000 hour life expectancy from Audio Technica, but below is what they have officially said with regard to the VM series stylus replacements. Of course, it's still up to the user to decide when it needs replacement, and that time can be affected by many variables that Audio Technica and/or the diamond manufacturer don't control ...

Lifetime of the replacement stylus is approx. 300 to 500 hours for Conical, 300 hours for Elliptical, 1000 hours for Microlinear, and 800 hours for Shibata and Special Line Contact.

 

I can't say for certain. I have not looked into it. I probably will not be sending the first ART20 of mine back to Audio Technica but will be utilising a third party retipper. Possibly Soundsmith, but there is a fellow local to me(Cafe Latte) who apparently is exceptional. I have plenty of time to gather information.

 

I asked Expert Stylus Co in the UK and they said they would have to remove the titanium plate in order to fit a new stylus. My experience is that they always do a good job, but certainly it would be a somewhat different cartridge after a retip.

 

Maybe the stylus renewal is a little like doing maintenance on a car. And I would argue that this is a Ferarri, Jaguar or Corvette, and as such I would prefer to have the work done at the dealer instead of the neighborhood gas station. Until someone else shows that dealer service is no better than the gas station. So we have some somewhat periodic maintenance that is required to have the performance for which we bought the ART20. So that's not free. If Audio Technica will discount the next one at 1/3 off I will be paying $2000 for the second and with the original $3000 I will have paid $5000 for the first two years, approximately. This is not a cheap hobby and to be driving one of the aforementioned is an honor. Assuming the AT discount to be continuous I will be paying AT about $2000 a year for annual maintenance unless and until someone proves the gas station to be sufficient. Or if you want to do some math start out with figuring how much an equal cartridge will cost and figure in the annual gas station bill to be and see when that becomes less expensive. Good luck, I'm driving my Ferrari.

 

I might be the first to test the local garage. I would have complete faith in Soundsmith, plus a fellow one hours drive from me has acquired a great reputation. More than likely Soundsmith for the first retip.

 

If you trust the local mechanic I wouldn't blame you for going there. And of course since you'll have both the retipped and an original we'll all be hoping for your comparison. Kirt1965

 

Just incredible! I listened to "The Band"'s Last Waltz album, specifically "Evangaline" and "The Weight" on the last side. Separation of sounds is just spectaculr, almost as if it were the grand finale of Fourth-of-July fireworks but the explosions are musical instruments and voices falling out of the sky. I'v never heard anything like it. I played it on the ART9XA and that doesn't come close! And it actually was "The Band's grand finale.

 

This is a very transparent cartridge. Imposing almost nothing of its own character. Obscuring almost nothing by the same token. It will be benefitted by better turntables, arms and phono stages. Its main limitations will be lesser capable turntables, arms and phono stages. The ART20 itself will be more hampered by ancillaries than any other factor. That is not a flaw. That comes with great capability and purity of character. All cartridges operate in a situation where the supporting elements impose their character more as greater cartridge capability exposes the character of the supporting elements.

Vinyl replay is especially an exercise in synergistic balance. The weaker that the weakest link is, the more the capability of the other elements is shrouded. It is probably better that the cartridge is not overly the most capable element. The turntable/arm and phono stage must be up to task before investing in a greatly capable cartridge.