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REVIEW: Audio Technica AT-ART9 Phono Cartridge

Model:	AT-ART9
Category:	Phono Cartridge
Suggested Retail Price:	$1000US
Description:	Moving coil phonocartridge
Manufacturer URL:	Audio Technica
Model Picture:	View

Review by Johno on December 13, 2017 at 15:48:44 IP Address: 1.124.111.48

Add Your Review for the AT-ART9

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The AT-ART9 cart is based on the magnetic design of the 50th anniversary AT50ANV. The vibration system is taken from the AT-OC9 3rd generation. The stylus is a line contact profile mounted on boron cantilever 0.26mm diameter.

I have 400 hrs listening on this cartridge purchased from 2juki via internet this year. Purchase was straightforward and the price was competitive. The delivery time from Hong Kong to Australia was 5 days, impressive.

According to 2juki the purchased cartridge was recently sourced from AT in Japan. This is an important point as a cartridge suspension will age from date of manufacture. There is no date of manufacture on the AT packaging I assume one could contact AT with SN and ask for DOM, best of luck.

I've owned around 20 cartridges over the years mainly MM but this is my 1st Audio Technica cartridge. For comparison I have been using a Denon 103D MC for the past 10 years which had a Sound Smith Ruby Cantilever / Nude Contact Line Diamond replacement 3 years ago.

Given the vagaries of time I will compare the ART9 to that cart.

AT product packaging is excellent on par with any quality MC cartridge without going silly (like wooden boxes). The instructions are in English & Japanese. You no longer get a personalised FR of your cartridge but a generic version with the instruction sheet. The generic FR shows a typical MC hump starting at 10kHz but text quality is so poor I can't read it. Perhaps AT do NOT want YOU to read it !

The mounting instructions are par for the course. AT recommends adjusting cart overhang / alignment to within 1mm accuracy. My experience was closer to half that distance if you want to optimise - make it sing. The through body mounting arrangement is awful given the alternative of a tapped body.

AT supply nice quality brass bolts and nuts. But the nuts are circular NOT hexagonal. The nuts have cut outs that tighten via the supplied small flat blade screwdriver. The whole process of mounting & alignment is harder than it should be. Even the ART1000 there flagship cart uses the same mounting scheme, madness.

There are many comments regarding this cartridge on Steve Hoffman and Audiogon forums. The issue of mounting, alignment & vta are discussed at length. If you intend on purchasing this cart read those forums they are invaluable. The general consensus is this cart is special but fiddly to align due to a short cantilever and tonearm tail UP is the preferred vta position.

In a nutshell when properly tethered this cartridge is exceptional for the price. On recordings that have an abundance of HF energy in the mix this cart has the ability to decode that HF energy without time smearing and at the same time maintain instrument & voice separation which makes it a tour de-force.

By comparison the Denon DL103D is so tonally charming and I'm sure some would say more musical than the ART9 but that charm comes at a cost - Transparency and immediacy ! Which in the end is coloration and tends to make some recording sound better than they should. I have no problem with that but sometimes you just want the truth and the whole truth and this is where the ART9 shines - think balanced or dare I say NEUTRAL ! On complex passages the ART9 is so nimble it makes the Denon appear old, which it is !

What I find startling about the ART9 is the ability to create a central image whereby the singer stands out front & centre from the rest of the band, similar to what happens when witnessing a live event. The ability to decode time & space with correctness is what makes this cart special. It does not favour any portion of the FR it simply sounds balanced. It excels at playing rock think AC/DC early Albert & Sons records 1975-80 you will not hear better. Surface noise is pretty well suppressed and tracking is faultless.

With a 0.5mv output you will need a MC phono stage or SUT. I'm using Lundahl SUT model 1931 with 24db of gain into a 40db MM phonostage, shoot for approximately 65db of total phono gain.

The ART9 needs plenty of break-in one poster thought at 1000hrs it was still improving ?

On the HiFi News Test record the ART9 flies through all the tracking tests including the last torture track. I'm using the cart on a Nottingham Analogue Interspace deck with Nottingham Interspace 10" arm (medium weight arm) The cartridge / arm vertical & lateral resonance oscillate at around 10Hz.

As much as I love the DL103D for its presentation and total lack of fatigue the ART9 is exciting by comparison. Think Goldring 1042 full of energy and foot tapping verve. As good as that MM cartridge is it lacks the refinement of the ART9, both are similar in presentation, and both carts can boogie.

Finally the ART9 is not a cart for the faint hearted (slippers by the fire brigade). Its reward is very much dependent upon near perfect alignment using a quality tonearm and phonostage.

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Product Weakness:	Fiddly to align & if not done correctly can sound etched
Product Strengths:	Superb sound with excellent tracking

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Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier:	Homebrew EML520B SE Amp
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Homebrew 4P1L Preamp
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Nottingham Analog Interspace Deck & Interspace Arm
Speakers:	Vintage Tannoy Arden 15
Cables/Interconnects:	Homebrew Kimber
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Rock, Blues, Jazz, Classical
Room Size (LxWxH):	6m x 10m x 5m
Room Comments/Treatments:	Mudbrick home very inert
Time Period/Length of Audition:	400hrs listening
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	None
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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