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Hi-Fi News - Issue No. 37 - Feb 2005

My Sonic Lab Eminent

(Reviewed together with Audio-Tekne MC-6310)

There's a certain mystique attached to Japanese high-end pick-up cartridges. In the glory days of the turntable there were names like Grace, Supex, Nagaoka, Denon and Dynavector to conjure with; and then there were the legendary names like Koetsu and Kiseki, whose products commanded prices well out of reach of the normal music lover. Nowadays, the Koetsu name continues and we have other brands producing finely crafted cartridges, such as Sumiko, Transfiguration, Lyra/ScanTech and Zyx. But there are other less well-known pick-ups coming from Japan today that rarely see the light of day in Europe, including the two reviewed here.

AUDIO TEKNE

The MC-6310 from Audio Tekne is a low output moving-coil cartridge. In fact, the output voltage is so low - the manufacturer gives a figure of 100pV (5cm/ sec 1 kHz) - that a dedicated MCT-9401 B step-up transformer is included in the UK price of £2995.

The casework of both transformer and cartridge is made from an unusual 'carbon' material, grey in colour, for which no technical information in English seems available. But if you dare risk the amusement of automated on-line translation services, you'd discover that its use may be for some resonance control properties, as 'the carbon with the spherical particulate, because there is a countless hole in that particulate itself, has the feature which is superior in spread and absorption of the oscillatory wave. There is no strain in the rebounding sound by the oscillatory wave and does not make the signal become turbid'.

Stylus pressure is given as 1.5-2.Og and internal impedance as 2 ohm, Other than that, there's little to know about what has gone into the design.

The Audio Tekne demonstrated the low output aspect right away, requiring the volume knob be to tweaked a little further to the right than usual. Applying more amplification to a cartridge can often result in more noise and hum.

Fortunately, used with the matching MCT-9401 B step-up box into either Chord Symphonic or GSP Audio Era phono stages, there was no cause for complaint, aside from a whisper of low-Level hiss audible with the volume turned up high.

The sound of the Audio Tekne was very mellow and gentle, with captivating musicality that gave no hint of grain or hardness, although some may feet it slides too far the way of rosy and euphonic.

In contrast to some pick-ups, old and new, which attempt to dredge every detail from the groove at the expense of 'listenability', the MC-6310 is the kind of cartridge that you can return to over and over for its less technical presentation and sweet open sound.

Individual images are far from being over-etched, instead being a little soft focused, though overall soundstaging was still deliciously involving with plenty of space and air in evidence. Dynamic expression was good, but not as dramatic as that of a high-quality moving-magnet or high output moving-coil.