Analog Bliss: Three Affordable Cartridges

Can vinyl records meet or beat the sound quality of digital sources? It’s a fair question and certainly one open to debate, but many enthusiasts are convinced that LPs, at their best, convey the overall texture and “feel” of live music even more effectively than digital media can. What’s the best way to get started in analog audio—and preferably without suffering acute sticker shock?

That’s a good question, and one TAS has addressed through its ongoing reviews of today’s best affordable turntables. However, to complement those reviews we offer a survey of three very promising, yet very sensibly priced phono cartridges: the Shure M97xE, Grado Prestige Gold, and Sumiko Blue Point No. 2. Read on to see if one of these beauties might be your perfect entry ticket to the magical world of analog sound.

Shure M97xE
Price: $89

Shure has been making moving-magnet phono cartridges for forever, it seems, so that the M97xE benefits both from the firm’s decades of manufacturing know-how, plus design DNA drawn from Shure’s famous V15 Type III cartridge. We think the M97xE incorporates three elements of Shure’s traditional “house sound” that will serve first-time buyers well.

First, the M97xE exhibits admirably neutral tonal balance over most of the audio spectrum, and its few shortcomings—touches of apparent roll-off at both frequency extremes—are sins of omission. Second, the Shure is an unflappable tracker, meaning you can play recordings of challenging, intricately orchestrated material without fear that the cartridge’s sound will suddenly fall apart. Third, the M97xE sounds unfailingly smooth, which can be an enormous benefit for those whose collections include less-than- perfect recordings of otherwise great music.

I put on one such great-but-imperfect recording, the Roches’ eponymous debut album [Columbia], and found that the M97xE handled the soaring but sometimes overly closely mic’d voices of the Roche sisters with good-natured grace. Even on the “Hammond Song,” where the sisters’ glorious but potentially hot-sounding vocal harmonies can cause problems, the Shure kept its composure, ensuring a pleasurable listening experience.

The Shure’s overall sound is warm, inviting and, to a point, forgiving. Relative to typical entry-level and mid-priced CD players, listeners might find the Shure sounds richer and more three-dimensional, though perhaps not quite as clean or well-defined. Good though it is, the M97xE does not provide the finer levels of detail, resolution, and textural finesse that represent the line of demarcation between good phono cartridges and great ones. To get a bigger taste of those qualities, you’ll need to spend a bit more.

Shure’s M97xE makes a fine starter cartridge because it introduces listeners to many of the blessings of vinyl playback, while minimizing potential downside problems such as mistracking, edginess, and tonal imbalances.

Grado Prestige Gold
Price: $180

Though I’ve used Grado cartridges in the past, it had been quite a while since I had one in my system, so I was in for a pleasant surprise when I began to spin vinyl via the Prestige Gold. Within seconds of settling into my listening chair to evaluate the cartridge, I thought to myself, “Wow, that little Grado sounds remarkably alive.” In more analytical terms, this meant the Grado offered many of the virtues that impressed me in Shure’s bargain-priced M97xE, while taking substantial steps forward in three important areas.

First, the Grado’s frequency response sounded more extended than the Shure’s at both frequency extremes, albeit at the expense of a small region of well-controlled lower midbass emphasis. Suddenly, high-frequency harmonics and the “air” surrounding instruments became easier to hear, even as basses and kick drums received a touch of added weight and punch. Second, the Grado offered a striking, across-the-board increase in resolution and detail. Third, the Grado captured fast-rising transient sounds, such as the sound of a drumstick striking the rim of a snare drum, with lifelike energy and “snap.”

Put all of these factors together, and the Grado serves up a livelier, more you-are-there presentation than it has any right to given its modest price. To appreciate what I mean, try “Spain” from Chick Corea and Return to Forever’s Light As A Feather [Polydor]. The most exuberant moments of the song are punctuated by handclaps and even occasional hoots from the players, all of which—through the Prestige Gold—fairly jumped off my speakers. The only drawback, however, is that on extremely heavily modulated passages, the Grado sometimes exhibited faint traces of hardness or coarseness—warning signs that its tracking limits had been reached.

While the Prestige Gold cannot provide quite the same ultrarefined, take-you-to-the-mountaintop listening experiences that big-buck moving coils can, it takes you a long way up the path toward analog excellence, and for a pennies-on-the-dollar price.

Sumiko Bluepoint No. 2
Price: $299

For many years Sumiko’s original Bluepoint Oyster enjoyed a reputation as the go-to choice among entry-level, high-output, moving-coil cartridges. Even so, I felt the original model left plenty of room for improvement—improvement that has arrived in the form of the new Bluepoint No. 2. As a first step toward understanding the Bluepoint No. 2, it might be useful to summarize the general benefits moving-coils cartridges are thought to provide.

Relative to moving-magnet designs, moving-coil cartridges are said to offer superior resolution of low-level details, faster and more precise transient response, and a heightened ability to produce broad, spacious, three-dimensional soundstages. The extent of these benefits will vary from design to design, but as a general rule all three are present to some degree in most moving coils—even in relatively inexpensive ones.

Sure enough, the Bluepoint No. 2 improves upon the already good performance of Grado’s moving-magnet Prestige Gold in the three areas outlined above, though the Grado is sufficiently good that the gap does not at first seem large. Over time, however, the Bluepoint No. 2 distinguishes itself through superior resolution of textures and, especially, through superior three-dimensionality. Put on a record known for 3-D sound, such as harpist Andreas Vollenweider’s Down To The Moon [CBS], and there will come moments when the Bluepoint No. 2 causes the back wall of the room to “melt,” confronting the listener with the dark, rich sound of Vollenweider’s harp reverberating within a giant acoustic space.

Relative to the original Bluepoint Oyster, the Bluepoint No. 2 offers richer, more potent bass and smoother, less aggressive highs. Together, these improvements transform Sumiko’s entrylevel moving coil into a cartridge that even finicky listeners might enjoy for hours on end.

Though the Bluepoint No. 2 offers somewhat less purity, focus, and refinement than top-tier moving coils, it supplies most of the essential ingredients necessary for superlative analog sound, which is quite an achievement. TAS