New Cartridge

[jamesrfisher]

New Cartridge installed yesterday and sounding very special already

 

[camcroft]

Very nice. Enjoy.

 

[Shrek]

Very very nice Enjoy 🎧😁

 

[Integralista]

New Cartridge installed yesterday and sounding very special already

View attachment 8427View attachment 8428View attachment 8429

New Cartridge installed yesterday and sounding very special already

View attachment 8427View attachment 8428View attachment 8429

Hi,

what was your previous cartridge? Can you pls. write some impresions about this interesting Gold Node cartridge? Regards

Juraj

 

[jamesrfisher]

Previous was a Nagaoka MP150 which was a great cart.

This is several notches up so far. Still breaking in but it definitely digs deeper, heard a few things on my favourite records I've not heard before. Bass is not deeper but tighter, more of a snap to the drums.

 

[good_enough]

Exactly the same price as the Hana SH II (which I'm about to chop my SH 1 in for). It'd be great to see a comparative review somewhere.

 

[daytona600]

Goldnote & Hana same thing in a different frock , both made by excel sound corp in japan

 

[Al ears]

Goldnote & Hana same thing in a different frock , both made by excel sound corp in japan

This is quite possible but cannot confirm. You could well be right as their are not many companies that actually produce their own cartridges.
You sure @daytona600 ?

 

[good_enough]

This is quite possible but cannot confirm. You could well be right as their are not many companies that actually produce their own cartridges.
You sure @daytona600 ?

There is a US audio dealer called Excel that stock Gold Note. That's probably what he's hallucinating about. Gold Note are an Italian brand so almost certainly don't roll their own.

 

[good_enough]

There is a US audio dealer called Excel that stock Gold Note. That's probably what he's hallucinating about. Gold Note are an Italian brand so almost certainly don't roll their own.

Although they do in fact claim to https://www.goldnote.it/news-en/welcome-to-gold-note/

 

[daytona600]

Hundreds of suppliers of cartridges, but only a handful of OEMs ( Original Equipment Manufacturers )

Ortofon , AT make about 80% of all cartridges globally , Ortofon alone produce 500,000 per year & No1 for decades
Nagaoka , Grado only two other volume producers
Virtually all the rest are very , very small volumes & Buy in cartridges or assembly from components rather than build cartridges . Excel , Rega , Pro-Ject , Denon , Goldring , Jico & Soundsmith

Adamant Namiki , Obray , Fitz Geyger & Nagaoka produce almost 100% of all Styli & Cantilevers

 

[good_enough]

Hundreds of suppliers of cartridges, but only a handful of OEMs ( Original Equipment Manufacturers )

Ortofon , AT make about 80% of all cartridges globally , Ortofon alone produce 500,000 per year & No1 for decades
Nagaoka , Grado only two other volume producers
Virtually all the rest are very , very small volumes & Buy in cartridges or assembly from components rather than build cartridges . Excel , Rega , Pro-Ject , Denon , Goldring , Jico & Soundsmith

Adamant Namiki , Obray , Fitz Geyger & Nagaoka produce almost 100% of all Styli & Cantilevers

Uhuh so Gold Note lie about being made in Italy and https://www.analogplanet.com/conten...artridge-manufacturer-excel-sound-corporation is complete fiction.

Or what exactly?

 

[jamesrfisher]

Goldnote & Hana same thing in a different frock , both made by excel sound corp in japan

Interesting comment. Any positive info on this?

This is on the packaging.

 

[daytona600]

Excel will produce the generator/coils/cantilever & Gold note will place this inside a cartridge body
Unless you are building cartridges 1000s at a time you will be too expensive for the market
handbuilt £500 brand label from a OEM £250 Automated production in huge numbers £99 Ortofon/AT
Excel OEM ( not a full list )
Adcom ,Andante ,Arcam , A&R Cambridge , Benz Micro ,Coral
EEI , Etsuro Urushi , Fox ,Garrott Brothers ,Gold Note
Hana , Lenco , Project , Rega ,SAE ,Shelter ,Sontra ,Sumiko ,The Vessel

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk64tgjpUPQ

 

[good_enough]

Excel OEM ( not a full list )
Adcom ,Andante ,Arcam , A&R Cambridge , Benz Micro ,Coral
EEI , Etsuro Urushi , Fox ,Garrott Brothers ,Gold Note
Hana , Lenco , Project , Rega ,SAE ,Shelter ,Sontra ,Sumiko ,The Vessel

Yes you found that post on vinylengine. Well done.

But not sure what point you are trying to make. Sure Ortofon make a lot of carts. The question for us suckers is what sounds good.

Saying somebody gets components from company X Y or Z makes not a blind bit of difference - it's bit like saying that a car uses Bosch fuel injection - doh... yes... so?

There are certainly clones around - or very nearly so, look at the Linn K9/AT95E. But mostly these things vary. If Excel supply any components for the Gold Note Donatello (plausible - Excel specialise in MC) then it's very different from the Hana equivalents, using a Cobalt rather than an Alnico magnet, and the suspension looks different, so is bound to have a slightly different sound - and that's what is important surely?

FWIW in Stereophile's recommended components, class A or B, Hana have 5, Ortofon have 6. That just tells you they both know how to make cartridges. It doesn't tell you what they sound like.

 

[daytona600]

The Firenze-based company is very proud that it manufactures virtually everything in house and has done so for the past 25 years. But there are some things it can’t make for itself. In the case of its pickup cartridges, although it winds the signal coils onto the armatures in house, it buys in its diamond styli, cantilevers and crossbars from two well-respected specialist manufacturers in Japan: Adamant Namicki

Da Vinci, Giotto And The Art Of Cartridge Design | The Ear

The Da Vinci and Giotto cartridges are the latest additions to an extensive line-up from Gold Note, starting with the ES-78 moving magnet at £130, right up to

the-ear.net

Internal Excel generators / coils / stylus , just the case is different
Hana EH/EL + Sumiko Blue Point


ES-78 Goldnote + Excel 700

 

[good_enough]

The Firenze-based company is very proud that it manufactures virtually everything in house and has done so for the past 25 years. But there are some things it can’t make for itself. In the case of its pickup cartridges, although it winds the signal coils onto the armatures in house, it buys in its diamond styli, cantilevers and crossbars from two well-respected specialist manufacturers in Japan: Adamant Namicki

Da Vinci, Giotto And The Art Of Cartridge Design | The Ear

The Da Vinci and Giotto cartridges are the latest additions to an extensive line-up from Gold Note, starting with the ES-78 moving magnet at £130, right up to

the-ear.net

Internal Excel generators / coils / stylus , just the case is different
Hana EH/EL + Sumiko Blue Point
View attachment 8439

ES-78 Goldnote + Excel 700

View attachment 8440View attachment 8441

And your point is? Which of these cartridges do you recommend buying, based on your listening?

 

[daytona600]

Which of these cartridges do you recommend buying, based on your listening
IMHO have several dozen cartridges too many to list
use various Shure V15 , Ortofon SPUs , London Decca , Grado Lineage , Technics EPC205
Ortofon A95 , Trio N34 , Stanton 6800
Denon DSN40 , JVC DTZ1 , Shure M97HE , Shure M44 Sony ND50X , Pioneer PN12 , Aiwa AN8743

 

[Al ears]

Which of these cartridges do you recommend buying, based on your listening
IMHO have several dozen cartridges too many to list
use various Shure V15 , Ortofon SPUs , London Decca , Grado Lineage , Technics EPC205
Ortofon A95 , Trio N34 , Stanton 6800
Denon DSN40 , JVC DTZ1 , Shure M97HE , Shure M44 Sony ND50X , Pioneer PN12 , Aiwa AN8743

Few of those might not suit a Rega tonearm

 

[good_enough]

Internal Excel generators / coils / stylus , just the case is different
Hana EH/EL + Sumiko Blue Point
View attachment 8439

I think everyone can see that the cantilever is different. The EH and (current) Blue Point also have different output specs on frequency response and voltage - 2.5mV versus 2mV.

So again - what exactly are you pointing out that is of any relevance whatsoever to someone shopping for a cartridge? Genuinely curious as to what help you think you are providing, to anyone.

For anyone looking for the resources @daytona600 is calling on: https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=116729.

Where the discussion is on: differences in sound, between cartridges with some shared components.

Heigh ho.

 

[Rui]

Previous was a Nagaoka MP150 which was a great cart.

This is several notches up so far. Still breaking in but it definitely digs deeper, heard a few things on my favourite records I've not heard before. Bass is not deeper but tighter, more of a snap to the drums.

yes in the past they were, now they seem to forget to make the other half of the cartridge, i still am using 70´s cartridges but bought some new ,only the sound is so low that i while having old stylus for the cartridges , the new ones would make some amplifiers or control amplifiers, two phono inputs unusefull and the aux. is normally for cd players and others, the mc cartridges in two amplifiers i own have a litle knob for increasing the volume ,one sideways , other in the front and a control amplifiers as them in the back, but with new mc cartridges makes no effect as i also when needed put the tape monitor on and using the cassette deck or open reel deck, rec level would increase the volume but the cartridges have a very low volume ,the reason why i still am not using them, but i do like the grado prestige II gold and hana umami red that i can get for a reduced price, also have, the so well refered 2m Black from Ortofon but that one is still closed in the box, this new one seems good but not buying any new one for now, maybe in some years i´ll need to buy more, some technics suplied cartridges i have for what i´ve known were made by Nagaoka and they sure sound perfect, when the release of a new SL-1000(r) , they (technics)asked Nagaoka to build a cartridge for the turntable due to their comercial relationship in the past.

 

[Rui]

Which of these cartridges do you recommend buying, based on your listening
IMHO have several dozen cartridges too many to list
use various Shure V15 , Ortofon SPUs , London Decca , Grado Lineage , Technics EPC205
Ortofon A95 , Trio N34 , Stanton 6800
Denon DSN40 , JVC DTZ1 , Shure M97HE , Shure M44 Sony ND50X , Pioneer PN12 , Aiwa AN8743

Some that i know were from the 70´s and sold till the 80´s but stylus for them were still available in the 90´s as i have them, so i would keep using them if still available stylus for them, well built ones.