Audio Technica ART20 cartridge.

Dynamics are interesting with this cartridge. A phenomenon I noticed years ago is the manner in which great systems allow one individual element in a crowded soundfield to ebb and flow dynamically independently of what the rest of the soundfield is doing dynamically.

Tonight I played one of the most beautiful musical recordings I own. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf singing Vier Lezten Lieder(the German pressing). Never have I heard her sublime voice so present, focussed, nuanced, powerful, fragile or heartbreakingly moving. The orchestra conversely sounded more distant, restrained, soft, delicate, sweet and understated. All in the most meaningful manner possible.

I was struck by the contrast(the exact right word to use here) whereby I have never heard Schwarzkopf's voice so bold nor the orchestra, especially the strings, so soft, sweet and delicate. I have noticed this affect before in previous iterations of my system. Where loud is louder, simultaneous with soft is softer. Like a dynamic range expander mechanism. Not just making everything bolder or more delicate but doing both simulaneously. Revealing more dynamic contrast. Only great components, and systems do this.

I have never heard anything close to this degree of simultaneous contrast with this record before. ES's voice has never been this present, expressive, and breathtakingly heartbreakingly beautiful and moving. Nor has the orchestra ever sounded so light, soft, sweet and delicate. Just a revelation and incredibly delightful.

The recording venue has never before sounded so vast. That sounded expanded also.

 

I have listened to two different pressings of that recording over the years. The first I bought was the US Angel pressing. Via that and my lesser systems ES's voice sounded muffled, coarse, shouty and like she was having a difficult job of singing the work. The orchestra sounded incredibly murky, veiled, indistinct and uninspiring. Despite many who liked the recording there were also many who disliked the recording and the singer's performance.

I bought the original German pressing about 5 years ago and it was much better than the Angel. Now I could make out more of the orchestra and could get a better sense of ES's performance.

As I fine tuned my previous cartridge's set up, along with my seemingly never ending journey of understanding the pitfalls of my isolation platform, the glories of the German pressing were gradually revealing themselves to me.

Over time, I was gradually becoming aware that Schwarzkopf was not bellowing most of the lyrics as my set up was revealing nuance I had not been able to access previously. What I heard tonight was how pure, effortless and delicate her singing was in this pressing. The crescendos were more powerful yet I could clearly hear that she hit them with no strain in her voice. Clearly controlled but not struggling at all. In fact at ease and relaxed whilst singing powerfully. It was obvious that other singers struggled somewhat with these songs that Schwarzkopf flew with. The expression in each syllable was astonishing. The performance was at once powerful and tenderly fragile. Such expressiveness. What mastery she had of her vocal instrument.

This is why I buy better components and devote time to my analogue set up. To get closer to the beauty of the music and to appreciate the artistry.

 

Which record is this? I'll never be fortunate enough to own an ART20 but I can own some more good music..

 

Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder ... mit Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

 

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for it. I found a lot of her on discogs with Gerald Moore, all in mono.. Love Gerald Moore.

 

A masterpiece of Straussian Lieder art, and a vocal recording masterpiece. Legendary singer and conductor.

 

There's much wisdom in your post. Make sure your turntable and tonearm, are of sufficient quality before you contemplate buying a cartridge of this quality. And make sure too your system is resolving enough so you can enjoy what makes a cartridge of this class so special.

 

The ART20 has a quality as a cartridge which is rare. All of the components listed in my signature are exquisitely talented, insightful and deeply musically satisfying. It is a system which doesn't obscure much if anything. The ART20 completed the picture. I have been blessed to assemble all of these component pieces into one glorious system. For that I am deeply thankful.

 

I had an interesting experience. I played an album that I know backwards. Boz Scaggs Middle Man. The ART20 couldn't make it sound any better than it was. That was eye opening.

By way of contrast, I played a record last night that I had bought but never played. Tori Amos Little Earthquakes. It was the first time I had ever heard the album. I am a fan of Under The Pink but had never heard her next album. It is a very well recorded album and sounded exceptional. I am even more impressed that the ART20 won't do any favours for mediocre recordings. The Boz Scaggs album bucked the trend with the ART20 and sounded like a lot of compression had been applied at some stage. It was 2 dimensional and boring. All this relative to what I have previously heard from the ART20.

The reason I find this interesting is that the ART20 isn't imposing some captivating character onto the sound of the record. Where there is virtue to be found, it will present it. Where there is little virtue to be found, it doesn't invent it. That is exactly what I want from a component. Honesty, not the audio equivalent of rose coloured glasses.

 

I'll give you all another example. A record I have used for years as a means of assessing my system is Weather Report I Sing The Body Electric. Musically it is an eclectic album. Yes it is music, but it verges on a pastiche of sounds. I have two pressings of it. Both from different nations. One sounds more precise. The other 'pops' more 3 dimensionally. The ART20 makes both of them sound great, the best I have heard either of them. It also clarifies the difference between the pressings.


I really like the honesty of the ART20. My system as it stood before the ART20 was very honest. Exceptionally good, and like a chameleon it would take on the character of everything I did to my turntable. I have used this over the years to fine tune my turntable, to the benefit of the music and to the benefit of my records. Like I said before, the ART20 completed what I want from a system. It is not for one moment going to tell me what I want to hear. It tells me what is. I'm shaking my head re-reading that. That is the definition of High Fidelity.

Like everyone else, I want a system which engages me with the music. I've had systems, in this house, which have been very musically involving, but there were also excellent records in my collection that they couldn't 'decode'. The musical involvement was an artifact. They made studio records sound amazing but they fell short on my best recorded albums which needed something that had great ability that didn't 'pretty-up' the sound.

The two components which changed that were the KRKs and The Truth. The KRKs I bought late in 2013 because I had blown an amp and was without music temporarily. I had intended to just get a pair of cheapo active speakets to tide me over while I found a decent amp. I was looking on the auction site and stumbled across somone who lived 25 miles away who was selling the KRK Expose E8Bs for less than 30% of their retail price. It was more than I had intended to spend, but at that price I knew I could recoup my investment if they weren't my cup of tea. The Truth I bought new about one month later.

Both of them together transformed my system and gave me the best sound I had ever heard. With one proviso. My turntable had to be set up well and my isolation support had to be fine tuned. They sounded great when things weren't optimised, but they sounded amazing. Unparalleled. When I got my turntable set up and isolation on song. I needed that clear window to my Source component to get me there.

That is how I know that this cartridge will not tell me what I want to hear. It also has helped me attain further insight into the tuning of my isolation and turntable set up. To the benefit of the ART20 and my record replay. I have used the great ability and honesty of this cartridge as a tool to further what I can get from it.

There is a thread here asking whether we want accuracy or emotional involvement. Well I want both. I know from my journey that there are no free rides. There are systems which deliver emotional involvement at some cost. They impose a 'sound' which like a drug clouds the truth but imparts a desired effect. The effect is alluring but dishonest. There is a manipulation of the signal coming from the turntable which is very nice. Everyone who heard my previous system was gushing about how great it sounded. I took one friend who knew the sound of my system, he had stayed with me for nearly a year, with me to audition whatever a high end dealer had set up when we were just killing time in the State capital city. The system was $97,000 according to the dealer. We listened for about 45 minutes to an audiophile recording. It actually sounded awful. Without telling my friend what I thought I asked him afterwards what he thought of that demonstration. Without hesitation he told me that he preferred my system. That was my previous system. The system we listened to had a Ayre CD player ASL tube preamp Krell power amp and JM Lab Utopia speakers. Audiophile interconnects, speaker cables and power cords. The room was treated. It sounded awful. I completely suspect a synergy issue with the system. That was compared to my previous system.

My present system presents the recording in a manner that I have never heard. Anywhere. With excellent recordings(as the Boz Scaggs exception illustrated) it sounds like the system steps aside and presents the recorded material the way the master tape might have sounded like in the control room. It won't make it prettier.

I can live with that.

I think you can have accuracy and emotional involvement but it isn't common let me tell you. I've had a few systems that were emotionally involving which could not do what this systen does. The bonus is that it is more emotionally involving than any of them but not at the expense of telling me like it is.

 

Let’s simplify this. If you have enough money to consider a $3000 cartridge your sound system is probably not junk. I think I can virtually guarantee that you will notice improvement no matter what you have. Both Theofile and myself hear sounds we never knew to be there. You may want to make other upgrades after hearing those but you will probably be happy with this cartridge.

 

Michael Fremer reviews the top dog in the ART series. Is it essentially an ART20 with an extremely sophisticated diamond cantilever-integrated stylus? It is a shame Fremer hasn't reviewed the ART20 and told us how much of the 3x expensive MC2022 trickled down to the ART20.

I especially say this because the language that Fremer uses about the MC2022 almost echoes points I was making about the ART20 in this thread. There is no doubt that Fremer endorsed what Audio Technica have been doing with the line.

Audio-Technica Celebrates 60 With the Explosive Sounding AT-MC2022

 

I will probably need to start a thread on the MC2022, but I have been researching it and I found an interesting statement by a journalist/reviewer about the production numbers. I would appear that Audio Technica are on a coporate mission to make High End statement cartridges. According to what I read: AT have made the "first batch dedicated to show the world what Audio-Technica is capable of at the high-end".

So, unsure of sales numbers apparently, AT release a 60th anniversary assault on state of the art. Say that it is a one-off limited edition but are watching the response with an eye to staking a permanent presence amongst the best cartridge manufacturers.

The ART20 is in my opinion styled after the MC2022 and not the other way around and released before the MC-2022 to test the waters and see whether the company could gain traction in competition against the best at the $3000US level. Here is the article which mentions the statement I posted above:

SoundStageAustralia.com - Audio-Technica Shows New Flagship Cartridge & Turntable at Audio Connection

 

Hell, I'd argue that the ART20 punches FAR above its price tag

 

Nice to see something from you.

 

The more I consider that the ART1000 has been released for a couple of years now and the disimilar to ART1000 - ART20 and AT-MC2022 come onto the market with obvious shared DNA within 6 months of the other. The more I consider that the ART20 is the spin off from the MC2022.

I'd also wager that the $6000 diference between the two would be worth the extra expense in the context of a system which could do the performance leap justice. This is the answer to kirt's question of "Where to next after the ART20?". The true bigger brother of the ART20; The AT-MC2022.

 

I wonder what an ART20 retipped with a diamond cantilever(and a Microline stylus!) would sound like? When it comes to stylus replacement time, if I can somehow get this option via a retipper as expensive as it would no doubt be, I would opt for it just to find out.

 

Namiki (now Orbray) makes one, but it would be expensive. Baseline price in singles for boron/MicroRidge is $330 and diamond/MicroRidge is $2510, so it's just a matter of finding someone to do it. The price goes down significantly in quantities of 10 or more ($1640), which most retippers would buy, but most likely wouldn't stock the diamond ones. As mentioned in another thread recently, Ana Mighty Sound in Paris has done some ... Should I buy a Koetsu?

 

You guys are enticing me to get Art 20, albeit I am not willing to pay retail yet )). Wonder if anyone compared it to Clearaudio MC carts such as Stradivari…

 

Ana Mighty Sound looks like a great place to get a diamond cantilever. Are there any other alternatives?

 

I think some of the retippers would do it, but you would likely have to pay in advance, and it would probably be at least $1200 extra on top of their normal fee according to our friend here @needlestein in his ebay ad. The problem is, at least to my simpleton understanding of the cartridge dynamics, is that the old suspension will not be optimized for the new cantilever material, they are really designed to work together in the better cartridges. But people do it all the time, especially going from aluminum tubes to boron rods, so maybe not as important as I think ...

If your diamond cantilever needs to be replaced, sorry, but that service is unfortunately not offered at this time. If you have a need for this kind of repair, please contact me. I would have to order the part in advance, which is priced at $1250. Labor would be added on top of that.

 

Thank you for that reply. I will keep that in mind. I am aware of his retipping experience but unaware that he would take on diamond cantilever installation. That is nice to know.

 

I have a story to tell. I had already decided to buy an ART20 as a spare. But I was already intrigued by what you said regarding the importance of the turntable. And I had thought that it could make a positive but maybe only marginal improvement. So due to my age I decided to improve my turntable to the degree that there would be no doubt regarding the improvement, yea or nay.


So I ordered the ART20 attached to a Kuzma 4 point 11 inch arm and to that a Dr. Feickert Woodpecker table all set up and checked out by the dealer. Yep, the whole nine yards, so to speak. Boy was I surprised! Not only did it improve detail, separation, etc, but the bass improvement is significant as well. I’ve been listening to vinyl for more than 50 years and I have never heard bass response anywhere near this. I had come to assume that bass response from vinyl had to be expected to be less-than-optimum.


Whole new ball game. Not only does it improve every dynamic I can think of, it does it with AUTHORITY. The voice and instrument detail which I am so fond of is significantly improved but the overall sound has oomph that used to be rare. I love what it has done for my rock, folk music, blues, etc but what really astonished me was that symphonic music now plays with authority. I have the 1960 pressing of the Reader’s Digest box set of light classical music. I tried the William Tell which sounded nice before and now it just pounds out with authority.


So after receiving it a week ago and having played it for a week I went back and read what you had to say about your Yamaha. And I saw this particular reference to the Kuzma tone-arm which is what prompted me to respond.


There may not be an infinite number of combinations from which to choose, but it is large. And none are cheap. Which brought me to my philosophical decision. Every upgrade so far has always resulted in improvement. So I was relatively sure that my hearing would still discern any improvement. Moreover, I am at an age where my continued opportunity to enjoy this hobby will be reduced. There is no point in waiting so I did it and I am again, one happy camper!

 

Go big or go home! That's quite a jump, congrats, I think you are in the big leagues now, nicely done, I for one am a bit envious

 

I commend you kirt. You told me that you have a degree in electronics. Well, in true scientific form, you tested the hypothesis. There can be no better firm ground to be on than certainty.

The reason I told you that the ART20 would sound better on a better turntable/arm is that every cartridge will sound better in a better turntable and arm. Always. The higher the capability of the cartridge, the more that principle intensifies. But you don't need me to tell you that now. You have proved it for your own ears.

The ART20 is so good that it could be used in the highest of high end turntables and acquit itself with honour. A stone cold bargain at the expensive price of $3000. Affordable high end. Just supply a great system.