MM Cartridges $90-120: AudioTechnica VM520EB REVIEW
Dearest Friends, we are back with the new set of cartridges from AudioTechnica and Goldring. First to kick off will be the latest VM series from AudioTechnica: the VM520EB, the VM530EN and the VM540ML!!! Let us hope all of them do well.. I paid for all of them as usual from my own pocket.
My appreciation for the very generous, kind and thoughtful VCLT from Tone Scott from California. He was the former Director of Operations at Silas/MCA Records, later the Artist Manager at Handprint Entertainment managing Jennifer Lopez, Babyface, Will Smith, Sean “Puffy” Combs, etc. He moved on to establish his own companies later on: Platinum One Entertainment, and then Music Life Enterprises. He is also the Director at D&AGuitar. An amazing list of credentials and I am very humbled and honoured at the same time, to receive his VCLT gifts for me, and with a heartfelt letter!
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AudioTechnica VM520EB
BASS
DYNAMICS 6
EXTENSION 6
CONTROL, DEFINITION 5.5
TREBLE
DETAIL, REFINEMENT 5.5
EXTENSION 6
MIDRANGE
NATURALNESS 6
SIBILANCE-FREE 6
TONALITY 5.5
DETAIL & HARMONICS 5.5
IMAGING 6.25
SOUNDSTAGING 5.75
RHYTHM AND TIMING 5.75
OVERALL SCORE FOR AUDIOTECHNICA VM520EB = 69.75/120.
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Referencing equipment:
Turntables:
1.Technics SL1200Mk5, 2.Rega Planar 3, 3.Technics SL1200GAE and G, 4.Avid Sequel SP with SME V arm,
Phonostage:
1-Schiit Mani, 2-Avid Pulsare2, 3-IconAudio PS1Mk2 with Harma Cryo-treated Burst-tested ECC83,
Amplification:
1-Vitus RI100, 2-Leben CS300XS with Mullard Blackburn 1972 NOS ECC83s and Harma Cryo-treated Burst-tested EL84 valves,
Speakers:
1-B&W 804D, 2-AudioNote AN-K/Lx,
Shunyata Research power and cabling.
*****
Dearest Friends and Buddies,
I am Ian and I love our Vinyl Community and Vinyl Music. Vinyl analogue playback is utterly blissful, and I want for fellow friends and buddies to engage in vinyl music for many, many years in their life. Vinyl music is blissful, free of time smear, phase shift, pre-ring and post-ring that plagues digital playback. Vinyl buddies and friends can all attest to that. It is not warm in the “bassy warm” sense, it is not soothing in the sense that “everything gets smoothed out”. It is because it is analogue, very detailed, calm, invigorating, enthralling, dynamic, refreshing. In a word, blissful. Utterly :-D
I want for all to get the very equipment that will get us there. These equipment, I firmly believe, are present, and existent, even at affordable price points!..and I started off in Dec 2015 hunting out for them, selling off my own Rega RP6 (which my wife and I loved) to fund the first batch of cartridges for review: the 5 cartridges in Group A ($70-$80), and the 7 cartridges in Group B ($90-$130). Subsequently I told myself to set aside $500-$1000 per month from my monthly salary to buy equipment to review. My own money. Quite a hefty sum monthly, significant to me, as I am a salaried man. I know this is crazy. But I believe in every field, there are people who have to make the sacrifice to pursue their love for the greater good, and to serve, the community of friends. I have also downsized my car in mid-2017 so as to commit these monies to fund these projects. I totally, rigorously, and kindly reject all forms of donations, be they from friends, from retailers, from manufacturers. This is a hobby, and my teachers and advisors in life have advised me that to bring balance to life, and to be wholesome, one will engage in a livelihood (daily job or business) that earns the monies, and one will also simultaneously engage in a hobby/service in life that is non-competitive, non-monetarily-remunerative. Friends also of course, know that my videos cannot be monetized due to the inclusion of music clips. Vinyl music is a lovely hobby I hold dearly. Friends and buddies are my ultimate responsibility and my love. I want the very best for them, and to provide totally honest reviews. Moles exist in hifi forums, moles also exist from benefactors who donate. I do not want to remotely encounter any moles masquerading as benefactors donating to my cause, only to find out sooner or later that such donations were/are from certain manufacturers or retailers. Everybody will do things differently. I want to maintain my status as a common-folk, aspire always to adopt the Shokunin spirit: of spending the utmost diligent care, through unhurried work, never caring for returns, in perfecting their work for the community. The personal satisfaction of getting to the very best equipment in each price class to help all my lovely buddies and friends is, the only thing, in store for me :-D We toast to the joy and bliss of vinyl analogue music. Vinyl Music deserves our love and attention. Our listening. Our care.
Let's go, buddies and friends!!!
Warmest Regards,
~ ian :-D
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Music:
www.bensound.com