Audio Technica AT95E vs Cartridge Man Music Maker
Jul 22, 2007 6:42:35 GMT
Post by gns on Jul 22, 2007 6:42:35 GMT
Review of the Audio Technica AT95E (around 25 GBP/40 Euro/50 USD) vs the Cartridge Man Music Maker (around 700 GPB/1100 Euro/1400 USD)
Both these cartridges are high output. The AT95E is about 5mV and the MM about 3mV. The AT95E is moving magnet and the MM is moving iron. I have used both cartridges for many years in numerous turntables.
As Paul Szabady (a Stereo Times reviewer) says, some cartridges communicate the music better, and that is what I sometimes find with this cheap AT95E cartridge.
Liken it to ice skating - you can have technical merit or artistic merit, and rarely you get both, but when you do, you have a champion.
The AT95E may not be able to reproduce accurately a particular classical note, whereas the MM3 may do, but if a cartridge cannot communicate the togetherness of a musical grouping, then it quite honestly isn't worth making!
Another thing to consider, and I am a lone voice in this, is that the results of political involvement in the art which excludes the use of particular substances and requires the use of alien power sources, to name but two, have led to a change in sound of new equipment.
The cheap AT95E therefore, through lack of refinement, has a better chance of synergy with politically compliant products? Maybe.
So how did the AT95E and Music Maker compare?
I would have thought the Music Maker would have shown up a bad recording where the AT95E would have sailed through. But that was not the case. The AT95E resulted in disappointment when playing a poor recording, and as some of my favourite music is recorded badly, then it is not going to be a complete winner with me. On the other hand, the AT95E gives a satisfying blend with well recorded albums, and by carefully selecting your music, can give endless hours of enjoyment.
But what if you want to hear all your old favourites? This is where the Music Maker scored in being able to bring out the delights "I could swear I so easily used to hear".
Moving on to known good quality recordings. The Music Maker placed an air of intensiveness or a forced performance on some parts of popular classics such a my Decca recording of Gershwin's An American in Paris. However, this effect went after a few minutes, blatantly indicating the recording equipment had not been warmed up before the recording had been made.
This shows the Music Maker to be a refined cartridge, possibly one that places a little emphasis on things, like decorating a Christmas tree rather than seeing it as nature intended. If you try to emphasise something, how do you emphasize nothingness? You could bring attention to nothingness making that nothing feel more empty than it is!
Swapping over to the AT95E, the reduced nothing led to more of something. The lack of emphasis made the music a naked as nature made the Christmas tree. But the tree isn't really naked! It is fully equipped!
I think this argument is leading full circle back to a time when you could buy stickers for your album sleeves indicating your preferred bass and treble settings! What! Tone controls? Yes!
It is leading to me questioning Hi-Fi, and leading me to the answer I have always known in the back of my mind - Hi-Fi is Bullshit!
There is absolutely no product on the market, cartridge, turntable, tonearm, phono preamp, power amp, CD player, loudspeaker, you name it, that can put back a recording's missing tonal balance. And all the reviewers who'd have you believe different, are simply making a living out of your dissatisfaction, which is the thing that has kept the hi-fi press in business for all eternity.
There is simply no tonal balance that fits all. Human satisfaction is an unknown variable, and manufacturers like I, can only make a good stab at where we think your satisfaction level lies.
The more refined a product gets, the easier it is to tip it over the edge. This is why one reviewers meat and two veg is the other's poison. The great debate can go on forever, but you only have the one life - why waste it on micro-variances?
So this is why I decided to simply use the most reliable turntable ever made (Technics SL1200/1210) and stick an Audio Technica AT95E on it. My ears will soon adapt and then I can get back to where I want to be - listening to music - artistic merit and not technical merit, and who knows, satisfaction may follow.
Both these cartridges are high output. The AT95E is about 5mV and the MM about 3mV. The AT95E is moving magnet and the MM is moving iron. I have used both cartridges for many years in numerous turntables.
As Paul Szabady (a Stereo Times reviewer) says, some cartridges communicate the music better, and that is what I sometimes find with this cheap AT95E cartridge.
Liken it to ice skating - you can have technical merit or artistic merit, and rarely you get both, but when you do, you have a champion.
The AT95E may not be able to reproduce accurately a particular classical note, whereas the MM3 may do, but if a cartridge cannot communicate the togetherness of a musical grouping, then it quite honestly isn't worth making!
Another thing to consider, and I am a lone voice in this, is that the results of political involvement in the art which excludes the use of particular substances and requires the use of alien power sources, to name but two, have led to a change in sound of new equipment.
The cheap AT95E therefore, through lack of refinement, has a better chance of synergy with politically compliant products? Maybe.
So how did the AT95E and Music Maker compare?
I would have thought the Music Maker would have shown up a bad recording where the AT95E would have sailed through. But that was not the case. The AT95E resulted in disappointment when playing a poor recording, and as some of my favourite music is recorded badly, then it is not going to be a complete winner with me. On the other hand, the AT95E gives a satisfying blend with well recorded albums, and by carefully selecting your music, can give endless hours of enjoyment.
But what if you want to hear all your old favourites? This is where the Music Maker scored in being able to bring out the delights "I could swear I so easily used to hear".
Moving on to known good quality recordings. The Music Maker placed an air of intensiveness or a forced performance on some parts of popular classics such a my Decca recording of Gershwin's An American in Paris. However, this effect went after a few minutes, blatantly indicating the recording equipment had not been warmed up before the recording had been made.
This shows the Music Maker to be a refined cartridge, possibly one that places a little emphasis on things, like decorating a Christmas tree rather than seeing it as nature intended. If you try to emphasise something, how do you emphasize nothingness? You could bring attention to nothingness making that nothing feel more empty than it is!
Swapping over to the AT95E, the reduced nothing led to more of something. The lack of emphasis made the music a naked as nature made the Christmas tree. But the tree isn't really naked! It is fully equipped!
I think this argument is leading full circle back to a time when you could buy stickers for your album sleeves indicating your preferred bass and treble settings! What! Tone controls? Yes!
It is leading to me questioning Hi-Fi, and leading me to the answer I have always known in the back of my mind - Hi-Fi is Bullshit!
There is absolutely no product on the market, cartridge, turntable, tonearm, phono preamp, power amp, CD player, loudspeaker, you name it, that can put back a recording's missing tonal balance. And all the reviewers who'd have you believe different, are simply making a living out of your dissatisfaction, which is the thing that has kept the hi-fi press in business for all eternity.
There is simply no tonal balance that fits all. Human satisfaction is an unknown variable, and manufacturers like I, can only make a good stab at where we think your satisfaction level lies.
The more refined a product gets, the easier it is to tip it over the edge. This is why one reviewers meat and two veg is the other's poison. The great debate can go on forever, but you only have the one life - why waste it on micro-variances?
So this is why I decided to simply use the most reliable turntable ever made (Technics SL1200/1210) and stick an Audio Technica AT95E on it. My ears will soon adapt and then I can get back to where I want to be - listening to music - artistic merit and not technical merit, and who knows, satisfaction may follow.
