thoughts on the Madrigal Carnegie One

During the reorganization of Benz, a collaboration was arranged between Van den Hul, Mori and Lukaschek. Lukaschek already worked for Benz, and Mori was well-regarded for his contribution in the development of the Sony XL55 cartridge which employed a novel coil. Everyone knows about A.J.Van den Hul, of course. The work of the men resulted in the production of the Benz Silver, the Van den Hul One, and the Madrigal Carnegie One.

Like the Sony moving coil, the Carnegie One has an unusual figure eight coil design. Another feature is that the Madrigal has a layered cantilever made from carbon fiber, beryllium, and aluminum. No other cartridge that I am aware of ever used this exact cantilever composition. The cartridge shares a common tip with Van den Hul models, the true line contact that Van den Hul designed.

Like the Sony, many examples tend to be low-riders over time. That said, if it doesn't ride low in the groove now you will probably be okay with it. If it does ride low, however, take a pass because the body is not easily opened for repair. That is the only mechanical downside that comes to mind. I own two, and one came as a low-rider. Check it before you buy it.

How does it sound? Everyone has a flavor he prefers, but reviewers at the time considered the Madrigal Carnegie One to be one of the most neutral cartridges ever made, and most of those guys ended up with one in his stockpile. I find the sound to be very clean, but not overly exciting. Still, it is a nice cartridge worth owning that is still capable of beating the performance of a lot of today's offerings.

If you get it, it has a Dynamic Compliance of 17 x 10-6 cm/Dyne, so it will work well with a wide range of tonearms. As far as VTF goes, mine seems to like 1.6-1.7 grams. I haven't used it in awhile, so I can't tell you exactly where I used it last, but it in that range.

Hope this helps,
Win

Thanks Audiolui and Mepearson for the input. Although it seems obvious now, I hadn't really considered the actual age of the Madrigal regardless of how many hours it had on it. The dealer will mount either cartridge for me so I can probably run the Madrigal through a few tests before taking it home.

Lewm, you hit the nail right on the head in terms of why I even considered the Madrigal in the first place. At this price point it should be much better than anything new. The real kicker is its not a matter of budget but how much I can spend without alerting my wife :)

Sballs,

You are right in that the Madrigal should be a good value these days. It sold for $1,200 back when it was made, and will stand up to those selling for that amount now.

Sballs-it's always the wife isn't it? I wish I had a dime for everytime some guy used the wife as an excuse on why he had to sell somthing that he supposedly loves. One guy was crying over the fact that he had to sell his speakers because his wife said they had to go. I told him to get rid of the wife and keep the speakers. The speakers would probably bring more joy into his life.

If you buy the Carnegie, you shouldn't have to pay much for it since it is as old as Moses.

A proper used value for that piece is between $275 and $375. Old or not, it is well worth that amount.