2023 Editors’ Choice: Phonocartridges $2,000 – $5,000

Clearaudio’s literature artfully describes the Charisma V2 as founder Peter Suchy’s “moving-magnet masterpiece.” It offers a full palette of tonal color vibrancy and timbral complexity, with classic midrange heft and bloom, electrifying dynamics, and top-end sweetness. Tracking is unshakable and effortless, allowing transients to be reproduced with unalloyed naturalism. The Charisma also retrieves images like they’re being monitored by LoJack. Output is a real world 3.6mV. Like its name implies, you’ve either got it or you don’t. This cartridge has got it. NG, 284

From the top of the midrange on down this second version of Clearaudio’s Talisman low-output moving coil is one beautiful-sounding pickup, with a gorgeous midrange and bottom end, solid in all senses of the word, superb definition and clarity, and lots of heft and weight. Yet it’s also dynamic as all get out, with terrific rhythmic spring and timing. However, there is also a mild brightness that is not necessarily unpleasant in and of itself, though it can be depending on the source. PS, 232

Dynavector’s 17DX, the fourth generation of a 20‑year‑old design, is ruler-flat top to bottom with all the life and liveliness of past Karats, the see‑through transparency, the superb tracking, the crackling musicality, brilliance and clarity abounding. It also throws a wide and deep soundstage with extraordinary dynamics and resolution. PS, 172

Ortofon claims the Bronze, a low-output moving coil in the company’s Cadenza line, has been voiced to have a slightly warmer, more romantic sound. So, it proved in PS’ listening, though the flavoring remains subtle, which is to say the Bronze is still very much an Ortofon as regards overall neutrality, transparency, clarity, resolution, tracking ability, dynamic range, imaging, and soundstaging. If you want an Ortofon with a dash of warmth, the Bronze might be just the ticket. PS, 232

Like its ten-times more expensive brother, the nonpareil DS Audio Grand Master, the DS 003 optical cartridge uses DS’ new “dual-mono” optical/electrical generator, with independent LEDs and photodetectors for each channel. Again, like the Grand Master, it uses a featherweight, 99.9% beryllium shading plate that is 50% lighter than the aluminum one used in DS Audio’s previous oc’s (prior to the Grand Master). And once more like the GM, the DS Audio’s internal wiring is 1.6 times thicker than it was in first- and second-gen DSes. These technological advancements make for virtually the same kind of sonic improvements that they do in the GM. Because of the dual-mono setup, channel separation is greatly enhanced—to the benefit of soundstaging and imaging. The reduction in mass improves tracking and lowers noise to a near-inaudible level, increasing resolution and dynamic range. The better wiring and improved equalization help render tonality in the same lusciously rich, full-bodied, deep-reaching fashion that you hear on the GM, with tape, and in life. If you have a system that is capable of highest-resolution playback, then by all means go whole hog and get the fabulous POY Award-winning Grand Master duo. You won’t regret it. But if you don’t have state-of-the-art speakers and amplification (or money to burn), then for JV the choice is easy: Go for the DS 003. It is a simply marvelous transducer. JV, 330

Shelter’s 901 MkIII moving-coil cartridge combines a “Thousand Series” motor assembly with the smaller body of the earlier 901, and the result is sublime. It carries forward much of the vibrancy, lushness, and graciousness of the original 901, while also exhibiting the heightened transparency, transient speed, and dynamic snap so characteristic of the “1000 Series” Shelters. CM, 205

A low-output (0.3mV) moving-coil cartridge featuring a nude Shibata stylus with a thin, stiff boron cantilever, the Cadenza Black brings a lot of the advanced technology found in Ortofon’s more expensive offering, like the MC A90 and MC Anna, to a more affordable price. Here’s a fast, tonally balanced, low-coloration pickup that has outstanding transparency, tonal neutrality, and openness without any brightness or stridency, plus very good soundstaging and dynamics. JH, 234

The most recent Kiseki Purple Heart captures all the magic of the original. At the same time, the newest version is quite different from the original. While they both use boron cantilevers, the latest has a different mounting method for the diamond, and its coils are wound from gold instead of OFC. Kiseki in Japanese means “miracle,” and it is a fitting name for the Purple Heart NS. This moving-coil cartridge is easy to drive, tracks everything thrown at it, and has a relaxed yet detailed sound that, when mated with superb speakers, puts the performers in the listening room. JH, 306

This is the entry-level cartridge in Clearaudio’s “super-class” of moving coils, and super it is! The Concerto uses wood to add a touch of warmth and richness, yet retains the superb focus, resolution, transient quickness, and top-end extension that have been hallmarks of Clearaudio’s reference cartridges. JH, 167

The Infinity represents Miyajima’s attempt to push the boundaries of mono reproduction one step beyond its previous flagship Zero cartridge. Its attempt has succeeded. The bulbous Infinity weighs in at some 6.4 grams, but the increase in size and weight from the more diminutive Zero do not in the slightest detract from its performance. Rather, they enhance it. The Infinity not only extracts more information from the grooves than the Zero but is also smoother and more extended in the treble. For anyone interested in playing mono LPs, the Infinity is a must-audition. JHb, 309

Outfitted with a boron cantilever, a material PS always associates with neutrality, the CAR exhibited superb imaging and soundstaging, wide and deep if the recording calls for it, and close and intimate with other kinds of recordings. The top end sounds extended yet very easy on the ears, and it’s transparent without thrusting a whole lot of detail that has little or nothing to do with the natural reproduction of music. Suppression of surface noise is very good, and tracking is excellent. Its synergy with the Stabi M and 4 Point speaks for itself. PS, 248

Very quiet and transparent to sources, the SLR Gullwing is a stunning-sounding moving-coil cartridge that somehow manages not to place layers of electro-mechanical stuff between the music and us. It breaks through room boundaries and time frames by delivering highly convincing facsimiles of all that it touches—chamber groups, orchestras, voices, jazz, rock, you name it. The overall result is music that sounds more produced than reproduced. WG, 206

The Hana Umami Red has exceptional balance that allows the musical timbre of instruments and vocals to present themselves truthfully. If you couple this with excellent micro/macro-dynamics, the ability to unravel harmonic complexity, an ever-so-slight tilt towards warmth, and smooth yet extended high frequencies, you have an excellent transducer. The Umami Red is the best sounding cartridge to come from the Excel factory. At its price point, the Umami Red provides deliciously enjoyable class-leading performance compared with cartridges in the same price range. AJ, 319

Inspired by tonearm-designer Frank Schröder, Soundsmith’s Peter Lederer designed both moving-iron cartridges with the following features: ultra-low effective moving mass, resulting in superlative transient and micro-detail performance; virtually hum-free operation due to six-sided HyMu80 magnetic shielding; and mc preamp compatibility. All Lederer’s claims are borne out in the listening. Reviewer AHC found both cartridges to be reference-quality. AHC, 219

In his recent survey of five moving-coil pickups, PS gave the Stradivari his personal “Golden Mean” award because it ideally mediates warmth and detail, control and relaxation, liveliness and listenability, at virtually no sacrifice in tonal neutrality. There is an organic rightness about this pickup that elevates it to reference-caliber. PS, 172

The Palo Santos Presentation is Sumiko’s elegant flagship moving coil (0.5mV). Its signature veers subtly to the full-blooded and warmer end of the spectrum, with just a hint of upper-treble shading. It flags ever so slightly in bottom-end resolving power and the final swirl of orchestral air and bloom, but this beauty conveys complexities of timbre and space that are nothing short of authentic. NG, 206

Equipped with a dandy micro-ridge stylus and a sophisticated magnetic engine, the Benz LP S has less of an electromechanical signature than most other ’coils. As a result, transparency to sources is markedly increased. This is a very high-resolution, very low-noise mc with a remarkably sweet and lifelike treble. In the right ’arm, it can consistently reveal details you’ve never heard before without ever sounding analytical. One of JV’s mc references. JV, 216