Vertere Acoustics announces Mystic Moving Coil Cartridge

Vertere Acoustics is best known for its extreme high-end designs loved by audiophiles worldwide. The Reference RG-1 Record Player and the Reference Tonearm compete on equal terms with the world’s best. The more affordable but revolutionary DG-1 Dynamic Groove Record Player was launched in May, to much acclaim, at the international High End Hi-Fi show in Munich.

Cartridge Design

Once the decision has been made on the motor system depending on the target market and to a small extent personal predilection, the key to designing – for all but the most extreme of high end cartridges – is to balance the design parameters: to deliver a cartridge that stays in the groove, retrieves the maximum musical information and is least affected by old or damaged records.

There are of course extremes in the world of hi-fi – extremes where the designer optimises one parameter almost to the exclusion of others – and these products are often the most talked about as they are loved or detested in spades. But this is not the Touraj way: he doesn’t want a system that favours closed miked jazz over rock or symphonic over punk. He wants a system that allows most records in a collection to be played and enjoyed In his view a hi-fi enthusiast with a small record collection just does not have the right system yet.

When Vertere launched the DG-1 Touraj said: “The job of a record player is very simple, and very linear it has to allow the most accurate measurement of a something going past the stylus and throwing it from side to side over 1000 times every centimetre.”

The situation hasn’t changed except in this story the focus is the cartridge including the cantilever and diamond stylus which is the part that’s actually being thrown about over 1000 times every centimetre of record travel.

• The body is machined from solid aluminium alloy
• The body is mass-tuned to the generator for optimum support and control of unwanted mechanical vibrations
• Threaded body to accept the supplied stainless steel thumb screws for correct coupling of the cartridge body to the tonearm headshell
• Three specifically designed contact points are machined into the top of the body that provide the exact mechanical coupling required.
• Alignment ridge on the front top that assists mounting Mystic to any Vertere tonearm
• The low mass generator utilises a Samarium-Cobalt magnet with a low-mass cross coil made of pure virgin copper wires
• The aluminium 7000 telescopic tube cantilever maximises stiffness without a massive high Q peak
• Micro Elliptical diamond stylus tip that is designed for maximum tracking ability without compromising the high frequency response or increasing surface noise
• Bonded through diamond assembly maximises alignment and rigidity
• Wide band frequency response of below 10Hz to 40kHz
• Output of 0.5mV will provide a lifelike dynamic range with depth and precision

Type                                                           Moving Coil Phono Cartridge

Mounting                                                   M2.5 Threaded Holes

Special Tri-Point Contact

Output level                                               0.5mV

Frequency response                                10 Hz -40 kHz (-3dB)

Coil Impedance (per Channel)                40Ω

Recommended load                                 680 Ω – 1k5 Ω

220pF – 470 pF

Channel balance                                        Better than 1.0 dB

Recommended tracking weight              2.0g (1.9g – 2.1g)

Cantilever                                                   Aluminium Alloy 7000

Two-piece Telescopic

Stylus                                                           Micro Elliptical Diamond

Weight                                                         9.1 g

“Our collaboration with music industry engineers has given us invaluable insights into the art of cutting. This has enabled us to advance our record player (and by record player we mean Turntable, Tonearm and Cartridge) design in many ways to extract the maximum from vinyl records.

For example, with his recent remixes of the Beatles albums, Giles Martin – son of the late Sir George – used a Vertere MG-1 record player including SG-1 tonearm and PHONO-1 preamplifier throughout to check and approve the acetates and the test pressings.

And we’ve worked closely with the multi-award-winning mastering engineer Miles Showell: since February 2017. Miles has been using his own extensively customised Neumann VMS 80 lathe, incorporating Vertere cables, to cut normal and half-speed masters for the likes of ABBA, Cream, The Police and The Rolling Stones, and also the 50th anniversary release of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Beatles (otherwise known as ‘The White Album’).

Working closely with Miles has led to the first releases on our own record label Vertere Records. Release: a three-track EP and first album by Scottish band Caezar, and the first album by Dutch singer/songwriter Elles Springs, which was specially tape-transferred and then half speed mastered and cut by Miles for our label.

It’s only by involving ourselves at every stage of the record-making process that we can ensure our players bring you as close as possible to what the artists and engineers wanted you to hear.”

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