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Audio Technica VMN760xSL Reveiw

I wrote this brief review of the subject cartridge for Amazon and thought it would be of interest here as well.

This cartridge performs well above expectations.  It is mounted in a Technics SL1200GAE turntable and it has been compared to an Ortofon 2M LVB, and an Audio Technica ART20 among others.  Two phono preamps were used for evaluation:  Conrad-Johnson ART Phono and PS Audio Stellar Phono.  All cartridges set up using AnalogMagik software.  By any criteria the 760xSL performed at an exceptionally high level.  Compared to the Ortofon, perhaps the nearest competitor, it offers slightly leaner bass, but in exchange is ever so slightly cleaner and better defined.  Both offer boron cantilevers, the LVB has a Shibata stylus, whereas the 760xSL has a fine line stylus. Which is better is a matter of taste.  To me perhaps the LVB might be the better choice for classical music, the 760xSL for jazz etc.  However, the differences are minor and given that the LVB costs almost twice as much.... The ART20, even costing over $3,000.00 is considered by many to be perhaps the best moving coil cartridge available for the money available in the world today.  It is a marvelous thing.  So how does Audio Technica's best Moving Magnet cartridge compare with it?  Moving Coil cartridges are recognized as having superior detail retrieval compared to Moving Magnet cartridges.  Is that so here?  Not really.  MC cartridges should also have greater sound stage, superior tracking ability and so on.  Again not so between these two.  So is there any difference?  Oh yes,  the ART20 has a richness of sound that is unmistakable.  With very high end sound systems the ART20 will be better, but the difference is one of nuance.   The 760xSL has all of the essentials covered.  It is quite simply astonishingly good.   It is perhaps the modern day equivalent of the Shure V15Vmr.  It hits way above it's weight.  Highest recommendation.

billstevenson
lewm
14,675 posts
 

Bill, one could only wish that reviews in more run of the mill audio publications would be as succinct and to the point as yours above. Since you had at your disposal one very good tube phono and one very good SS phono, I would like to know more about phono stage-dependent differences among the cartridges you list compared to the 760.

billstevenson OP
1,190 posts
 

Well that is an interesting question.  I am back in NH, I brought the GAE with me this time, but the C-J ART Phono is in Florida.  The Stellar is here with me now.  So, it is the Stellar that has been used for the direct comparison of all three cartridges.  The C-J has never had the ART20 connected to it.  If you go back and look at Mikey Fremer's review of the Stellar you will find a comment to the effect that the Stellar does not do as well with cartridges that have a rich fullness about them or some such.  Anyway, I suspect that the ART20 would have a greater advantage through the C-J.  In a similar way, even given the vagaries of time lapse, my sense is that the two MM cartridges are flattered more by the Stellar.  Frankly, the Stellar is really excellent, way better than it has any right to be at it's price.  The Stellar really is serendipity itself with MM cartridges and clearly it helps them in this comparison.  Because I am wadding through a lot of old estate records, many in not good shape, MM is favored at the present time.  For years I preferred by a slight margin the 2M Black to my trusty AT150ANV.  Then the LVB widened that margin.  Now the pendulum swings the other way and this 760 is to my ears really terrific and easily the best MM I have ever heard.  Change of subject, did you see the the Tom Fine article yet on the sound differences due to cantilevers and stylus profiles?  You had asked for the URL and I attached a link to the article in the thread.

lewm
14,675 posts
 

I’ll check to see whether I’ve got that article.

We are going to japan in April or May. Maybe I’ll buy a 760 or an ART20 if cheap enough or a Nagaoka MP700. AT stuff is only about 10% less over there vs here, and now we’ve got to pay a tariff on top.

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lewm
14,675 posts
 

For performance versus cost value, I prefer moving iron almost all the time. Some of those vintage moving iron cartridges are just fantastic. But I’ve said this before about the Acutex 320 and the B&O MMC1 and MMC20CL cartridges. Not to mention Nagaoka.

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