Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Ever since Dynavector launched its Karat Diamond and Ruby MCs and Technics used a boron pipe in its more affordable EPC-205 MM , exotic cantilever materials have found their place in high-end pick-up design. A fine alloy pipe remains popular in cost-effective designs where the resonance of the tube and finite mass of the crimped and glued stylus may be employed constructively to 'tune' the HF response of the generator mechanism. Ideally, though, the cantilever should not 'bend' within the audioband but remain a 'stiff' communicator of the groove modulations up to the moving coils at the other end. Diamond cantilevers are the stiffest, the gemstone's 1200GPa Young's Modulus twice that of boron (another popular choice), about 3x that of ruby or sapphire, and a full 15x that of aluminium, though it is slightly denser, increasing the cantilever's mass.

Skyanalog uses diamond in its aptly-named 'Diamond 25th Edition' flagship while the REF, reviewed here, appears to employ the same suspension, coils, magnet yoke and 5x80µm micro-ridge stylus albeit mounted onto the end of a long sapphire cantilever. A solid sapphire rod will accommodate a fine diamond stylus mounted through a laser-drilled hole but a blob of glue is still usually required to secure the dissimilar materials. This adds to the moving (tip) mass and feeds into the sapphire rod's primary bending resonance. The latter is pushed higher than the modes in an alloy pipe, of course, but even at the top of the audioband will inevitably bring its own color to the response, distortion and sound of the pick-up. PM