Miyajima ´s Premium BE Mono cartridge weighs 10.8g, the total weight of the carbon headshell plus cartridge was 24.7g, well suited to my Ortofon RMG 309i tonearm. After adjusting the distance from pivot to stylus point for 320 mm I checked the alignment by my AS UNI-Din gauge, I also set the downforce at the recommended 3.5g.

It’s a low-compliance (8×10-6cm/dyne), low-impedance (6 ohms internal), medium-output (0.9mV) MC cartridge imported from Japan. The Premium BE’s design is the radius of its conical diamond stylus — 0.7mil, or 25µm — basically, the same radius as the styli that were designed to track the grooves of the monaural 33.3rpm LPs pressed from 1948 to 1958 (1 mil = 0.001″). The standard width for these old records was 2.0mil, and the 0.7mil-radius stylus rode comfortably within it.

I used my Victor TT- 101 Digital Drive and the MC phono pre in the DartZeel amp. You can move the styli only sidewards. Therefore I put a small hint on top of the headshell – never use it in typical Stereo Settings!

The Premium BE performed with superb agility and resolution when tracking the finest recordings. There was gorgeous and intricately articulated brocade in the horn choruses of “Night in Tunisia,” the famed and speedy bebop piece by Dizzy Gillespie, here performed by Miles Davis, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Lorraine Geller, Howard Rumsey and Max Roach at the Lighthouse, Hermosa Beach, California, 1953. I loved this sound.