Just recently Audio Technica started a new campaign promoting their new Art1000 cartridge, coming with the coils close to the stylus. The principle is shown below and it is not new.

Audio Technica claims they have added some revolutionary developments and also startet a patent. I am curious what we will see and hear in the press.

My Neumann DST provides a similar structure and the Victor L-1000 Laboratory too.Maybe long forgotten I got to attention to this vintage cart by my friend in Sydney. I received the Victor with the matching headshell.



t took a while until testing the Victor as I was busy with re-arranging some tables in my listening room. When a friend visited me two days ago we put it into the FR-66s, run it via a Final Labs SUT (40 Ohm) into the Kondo M7/EMT JPA 66 (in line function as preamplifier).We, and me in particular,  were curious what it does? To be honest I didn’t expect too much. And: wow, just on the contrary the music we heard was very nice. We then exchanged the headshell litz with Ortofon silver ones and connected the Victor to the JPA’ s 1mV, 200 Ohms input. The sound exploded in a wonderful way, very similar to the Neumann but a bit more open on the highs. Its dynamic and bass capability blossomed much more.

In the end it looks to me that the Victor L-1000 is one of the most interesting discoveries in the last five years. It beats many carts at and above 5000. So should i try the AT? A company I do respect very much and have collected many carts from,  MM and MC. Lets see…