Audio Technica VM530EN/H Headshell/Dual Moving Magnet Cartridge Combo (Orange)

This cartridge is AWESOME. I have had an AT-VM95 with E and ML styli before, and this EASILY sounds much better than my kind of worn out AT-VM95ML now, and much better than I remember the AT-VM95ML sounding when it was new. When I played my old, clapped out, very worn (or so I thought) copy of Anima Animus by The Creatures, my jaw hit the floor. And bounced. It sounded super clean, almost zero surface noise, and so. much. detailed. Way better than a CD. No sibilance, no hiss, no farty clipping, or IGD. And all the wonderful subtleties of Siouxsie's voice so beautifully rendered it seems unreal. Well, apparently the actual diamond is not the bottleneck in the budget AT cartridges, it is the magnetic system. This cartridge has a much improved coil structure that is symmetrical, instead of having one long pole piece and one short pole piece with one coil in between, per channel. With an asymmetrical coil of course the positive half of the signal will cause a different change in the output than the negative causing distortion, which is one of the reasons the VM95 is worse. The VM530 also has a shielding plate between the channels and a shielding cup around the coils, so it should have better channel separation. And it indeed does, it is possible to have an instrument come out of just one channel and be completely inaudible in the other, because it was not supposed to be. This cartridge also has higher compliance, which does probably contribute to it tracking a lot better. It can play my copy of a particularly badly remastered The Rapture by SatB, which was a distorted and clipped mess tith all my previous cartridges, literally like listening to it through a bag of uncooked rice. Not play perfectly, but at this point I think this album just has some baked in distortion. But it's at least listenable and not just usable as a stress test. I bought this particular cartridge in fact because of the lowbeats.de review that actually measured its tracking ability at 325Hz to be 120um. That is massive, other cartridges that I have found range from 60 to 90, even the very expensive ones.One thing you should be aware of though is that this cartridge, while not weighing a lot more than the likes of AT-VM95 or AT36000 clones, has a different weight distribution due to its different coil structure. In my case that meant having to unscrew my tonearm pommel by two whole turns before I could get it to be balanced after switching the cartridge. This could potentially mean it not working with your TT if you do not have room to move the weight outwards, and if it does, the moment of inertia of the tonearm will increase a lot. This does not really affect the playback, but the tonearm will be noticeably easier to send flying uncontrollably when still used to the old weight distribution and lowering or lifting it. So be careful with it, especially at the beginning. Also the higher compliance means that, when not in use, the stylus protrudes down from the cartridge more than on a VM95 (so that it can be at the same angle when under the load of the tracking force). Or my VM95 is just worn to the ground and suspiciously flattened, but I don't think that's the case.Also, and this is important, you need to lower your capacitance as low as you can, less than 200pF is hard to attain, but it can sound bad if you don't, at least my AT-VM95 did, so I have done it much prior to upgrading. You need low capacitance and short phono cable, for example under a meter of RG59 coax. Also many direct-drive turntables of the "affordable but not bad" variety that that has an inbuilt preamp, like Pioneer PLX-500, Audio Technica AT-LP120 without X and AT-LP120X (and probably others), will have a low-pass filter on the preamp board, you need to remove the capacitors from it and bypass the inductors for best results. I don't know why they include it even when switched to "phono". It's a very easy modification, but if you don't want to do it, then maybe reconsider spending on this cartridge almost as much as you did on the turntable, as it could possibly underperform and it won't be its fault. And get an Ortofon 2m Blue or something that can have 300pF or more on paper (but probably won't track or sound as good). You can probably get away with 100pF more than specified, but not much more than that.

Ayant acheté une platine vinyle Audiotechnica AT-LP5X et après essais avec différentes cellules de lecture, je considère qu’il est nécessaire d’équiper ce matériel avec une tête de lecture de meilleure qualité que la VM95E fournie en série par le fabriquant.Après étude des différentes cellules Audiotechnica mon choix s’est porté sur cette VM 530 EN/H dont les spécificités techniques m’ont semblées convaincantes et qui le gros avantantage d’être fournie et montée (réglée) sur la tête interchangeable, il n’y a plus qu’à régler la force d’appui et l’antiskating.A l’écoute, celle-ci offre une restitution incroyablement plus précise et dynamique que la VM95E, pour un prix très raisonnable. J’ai disposé auparavant de cellules Moving Coil de plusieurs fois son coût et je peux vous assurer que cette VM 530 EN, pourtant de type Moving Magnet, moins cotées, peut rivaliser sans rougir avec la pluspart.A essayer !

My friend and I could not believe the difference when we played the same track on an old Linda Ronstadt album. So much more frequency information picked up on the 530 as compared to the 95.

I just want to make my 60' vynil records' clean and clear, comfortable sound playback, likewise it were in that time.For the present time being, this cartridge is calling back happily those day's memory.Be Careful while move the protector up & down!In just two months, the stylus tip was crushed out while pulling up the protector.At the moment, I couldn't understand whatever happened. But when I looked into the stylus, it's gone. The pulling Up and Down movement of the protector was very stiff. Unknown movements made the gap between the body and the protector shrinked tightly. That's what I have to order another stylus in just 2 months.

Dull and lacking richness/fullness. Otherwise clear and respectfully detailed sound, but I miss the punch. I guess you can't have everything with a cartridge of this rang.

Great stylus.nice open sound plenty of detail. Fitted straight onto the deck checked with alignment tool spot on well fitted to shell. Arrived early well packed.