Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

During a conversation that covered myriad hi-fi-related topics, AVID's Conrad Mas revealed that the express goal of the Reference Ruby was 'to encourage listening sessions where you find yourself playing LP after LP until many hours have passed unnoticed'. I will not recount how he got one of HFN's contributors in trouble by achieving this when said writer should have been elsewhere, but I get it, having now experienced the cartridge's seductive properties. What differentiates the Reference Ruby from its siblings is the solid ruby cantilever – one of the longest I've seen [see inset picture] and which terrified me during installation.

It was chosen after Conrad auditioned a range of cantilever materials, the choice affecting not just sound 'colour' but moving-mass and output. He says, 'We arrived at the ruby cantilever because it was sonically far better than anything else'. Among the latter were boron, sapphire and other contenders, but his findings mirrored that of Dynavector when it announced ruby and diamond-cantilevered MCs in 1979. The revelation? Cantilevers may play a far greater role in determining LP sound than stylus profile, coil material or other oft-cited details.