Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: MY Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent BC Phono Cartridge by DanWKW

Model:	Ultra Eminent BC
Category:	Phono Cartridge
Suggested Retail Price:	unknown
Description:	Flagship of MY Sonic Lab MC carts
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available

Review by DanWKW on March 22, 2010 at 13:26:24
IP Address: 219.73.25.22 Add Your Review
for the Ultra Eminent BC

Some inmates told me he is interested in this Japanese brand, MY Sonic Lab. So let me put some words on it.

Matsudaira Y., the company owner, uses his initials M.Y. for his brand "MY" Sonic Lab. Who is he? According to relevant sources, Matsudaira-san had been working for various audio companies like Supex, Entre, Audiocraft and others for more than 20 years. He also learned some of the skills from the most renowned Japanese master, Sugano-san, the founder of Koetsu Japan, and was responsible for building a cart called MC-115C for Luxman Corp for Sugano-san. If you look for Audiocraft carts, you may probably find some similarities with MSL's products.

MY Sonic Lab not only builds its own carts but also builds carts for other companies. When he worked on Luxman's cart, he met A. Muira, now the founder of Air Tight after he quitted Luxman. With this long term relationship, it is more than natural for him to build carts for Air Tight. PC-1 and PC-1 Supreme are made by Matsudaira-san's own hand. It is no doubt that, due to this factor and the M.Y.'s attitude that always strives for perfection, the production of these carts is so slow and unable to keep up with the rising demand on the market.

Ultra Eminent BC is the flagship of MSL's line. It is said to be the first MC cart with the lowest possible internal impedance (0.6 ohm) with relatively high 0.3mV output. Matsudaira-san believes that as quoted "a simple comparison of 2 ohms:0.5mV and 4 ohms:0.5mV shows that the power generation efficiency of the former is double that of the latter and with internal loss one half of the latter."

After using it for more than 1.5 year, Ultra Eminent BC is a cart with fast response, able to reveal the subtle details hidden in the grooves, and with speedy impacts/attacks. Both transient responses and natural decays of the acoustic instruments are lush and extremely outstanding. Matsudaira-san recommends to use Ultra Eminent BC with medium mass tonearm made with conventional materials, using phono cable of low internal impedance. I now teamed it with its own SUT, Stage 302, and sometimes with 4-ohm SUT loading built-in EAR 88PB.

System matching:
If you look for transparency, neutrality, airiness, less colorations of its own, fine inner details, ultra low pick-up noise, refined imagings, layered soundstage, more musical information from the signals, Ultra Eminent BC will be your cup of tea. If your system is too cold, thin-sounding, harsh, without adequate gain in MC phono(may request more than 65-70dB), look somewhere else.

In conclusion, MY Sonic Lab represents the best craftsmanship and performance in phono cart industry of today and is now one of the cart references in my system.

Best regards
Dan

Product Weakness:	Caution on: gain of SUT/phono amp and system matching.
Product Strengths:	Transparent, fast transient response, lush natural decays of instruments, breath-taking vocals, refined imagings, etc.

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Sunfire Signature 600 series
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): EAR 88PB
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Acoustic Solid Wood Reference MPX with SAEC 407
Speakers: Elac FS-210A
Cables/Interconnects: Nordost Heimdall phono cable, VDH Orchid, etc.
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Classical(70%)), Jazz, Vocals & others(30%)
Room Size (LxWxH): 20' x 11' x 8.5'
Room Comments/Treatments: N/A
Time Period/Length of Audition: 1-2 years
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): N/A
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	Sunfire Signature 600 series
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	EAR 88PB
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Acoustic Solid Wood Reference MPX with SAEC 407
Speakers:	Elac FS-210A
Cables/Interconnects:	Nordost Heimdall phono cable, VDH Orchid, etc.
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical(70%)), Jazz, Vocals & others(30%)
Room Size (LxWxH):	20' x 11' x 8.5'
Room Comments/Treatments:	N/A
Time Period/Length of Audition:	1-2 years
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	N/A
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner